Anarchy
by Foxcomm
Summary: The hunt for the Vaults continues with Gaige the Mechromancer landing on a primitive, ignored world in the corner of the galaxy. She has enough bullets for the inhabitants, the same is not true in reverse.
1. Hello from Sunny Remnant

_**Or 'The World Doesn't have Enough Bullets to Stop Me.'**_

—oo000oo—

"I was walking down the street when from the corner of my eye I saw a pretty little thing approaching me," a girl sang along with the headset she was wearing as she walked down a road. "She said I've never seen a man who looked so all alone and could you use a little company." Casually, she raised the heavy revolver from her side and almost without looking, shot the three large, wolf like creatures made of darkness that ran at her in their heads, making them explode in fire and electricity. "If you pay the right price, your evening will be nice, and you could go with me on my way." Putting the revolver back down, she grabbed this flat disk on her belt, charging her hand with electricity, before letting go of it, holding her hand out and letting it flying out like a lightning bolt that jumped to six or seven of these 'Beowolfs'. "I said you're such a sweet young thing, why do you do this to yourself. She looked at me and this is what she said." A couple of boar like creatures, that the locals called Boartusk, came charging at her, rolling into a spinning blade of would be death. They came along side one another before splitting and coming around hoping to get her between the two of them. Good tactic, just useless against her. Reaching behind her back, a shotgun appeared in her hand that she pulled forward. Bucking in her hands twice, the first boartusk fell to the ground and dissolved. Spinning out of the way of the second, she emptied the magazine and replaced it in another explosion of electricity. "You know there ain't no rest for the wicked, money doesn't grow on trees. We've got bills to pay, we've got mouths to feed, you know nothing in this world is free." Most of these 'Grimm' had figured out that she wasn't for dinner and had started falling back. Or maybe they were just getting out of the way of the big, scorpion like one that just burst through the tree line. "Can't slow down, can't hold back, although you know I wish I could." She reached behind her shoulder again and this time a rocket launcher almost as big as she is appeared. It was red with the word 'BADABOOM' stenciled onto the side of it. "You know there ain't not rest for the wicked, until you close your eyes for good." She fired once, seven rockets exploded. And then she fired two more times.

Looking around and seeing nothing, she digitized the Badaboom back into her Storage Deck Units before continuing back into town. "Hello," she called, taking out her earbuds.

"That was awesome," some little kid shouted from behind the wall that inhabitants had taken shelter behind.

"That, hah, that was nothing, I once fought something the size of a mountain," she dismissed. "Anyway, I'm glad I found you, my Echo became disconnected from the GPS, do you guys have a server I can reconnect to?"

One of the militia on the wall laughed and said, "That's why you stopped by? Sure, we can help you out. What's your name, huntress?"

"Name's Gaige. Nice to be here."

—oo000oo—

Thankfully, the town she just saved not only had a server for her to connect her Echo to, they also had a restaurant. And made a pretty decent coffee, too. Or at least, what passed for coffee on this planet. Tasted great none the less. "Should I stay or should I go now, should I stay or should I... Hello?"

"_Hey, kiddo, how's the hunt going,"_ came the voice of Sgt. Axton over her echo.

"Hey stud," Gaige replied as she raised a hand and 'touched' the small screen to the top left of her sight. The image grew larger and to those that looked into her eyes right then, they could see a tiny square in her irises surrounded by lettering. "As for the Vault, I only just made planet side a few months ago with no aid so no leads just yet. Saved several towns already though, so that's cool."

"_Still don't got anything on that planet on our end, you?"_

"Just a second, turning off the universal translator... _ I got a few theories,"_ Gaige said, taking another sip. _"Okay, for starters, I have already found signs of Eridians on this planet, mostly in the form of raw eridium the locals call Dust. Takes the form of two of the big four, fire and electricity, but also wind and water, if you can believe that. The stuff is so plentiful here, they use it in everything. As for the locals..."_ She looked to the side as several kids ran by, some with foil over their left arms as they 'shot' the bad guys. _"If I had to guess, a colony ship that drifted off course or some other crash. I mean look, an unexplored planet, in an unexplored system, in an unexplored sector of space so far from the navigation routes it's ridiculous. And it must have been a long time ago."_

"_What makes you say that?"_

"_Just listen to them. Sure, you can just make out that they're speaking English, but they are all but speaking another language from their accents. If I didn't have the translator working, I couldn't understand them nor they me. Another thing of interest though is that some of them are...different. And before you ask how so, just wait a second and I'll tell you. Some people have animal features. I've been looking through their Echonet and found that these 'Faunus' tend to have animal ears, eyes, tails, horns. Stronger, faster, better senses. Exactly what would be required to survive in a world full of monsters and eridium."_

"_Alright, makes sense."_

"_But the really odd part is that they are all...old animals."_

"_What, like from Andromeda galaxy?"_

"_No, older."_

"_The nigh immortal stuff."_

"_No, older. Like related to us stuff."_

"_Wait, you don't mean like in the records, do you?"_

"_Yeah! Wolves, deer, dogs, cats, those things you would see in a holo of E-arth."_

"_Whoa. So...are those there or was it just pulled from human DNA."_

"_That's the thing, they are here, in zoos and the wilds free from these Grimm. Hold up a sec."_ Gaige tapped her Echo a few times, shook hands with someone else, and accepted the lunch they offered to buy her. _"I really like it here, so polite after so long on Pandora."_

"_So, these monsters, how tough are they?"_

"_The ones I just killed weren't so tough but the net says that they were actually the small fries. Apparently, they feed off negative emotions so a close knit, small town like this where everyone knows one another isn't exactly on the menu. But large cities, yeah. Also a notice that there are certain spots were the Grimm just gather, in large numbers and more powerful than normal."_

"_Dollars to donuts, the Vault is in one of those spots."_

"_No doubt. But there is also the place they call the Grimmlands. So far from the cities that the oldest and strongest of the Grimm sleep there. Anyway, stud, I should be going. They use Lien here instead of Dollars so if I want to eat without the generosity of others, I'm gonna have to find a few bounties."_

"_Alright, you stay safe now."_

"_Will do."_ Hanging up, Gaige finished off her meal and picked up her cap, putting it back on her head. Normally she stuck with the pigtails but she was trying for a more mature look right now. Seeing if it worked for her. Her 'Bring-the-Pain' color scheme also making her look less like an academy student. Not that the piston, hammer, grenade, pistols, sub-machine gun, chain belt, shield generator, and lunch box filled with tools didn't do that already. Pulling out her modified Greed revolver, she checked the cylinder was full before doing the same with her modded Good Touch, both with the internals switched out to do lightning instead of fire. Putting her ear buds back in her ears, she barely noticed the guy with a sword walking into town. "Hmm, bounty notice, Roman Torchwick. ...This ain't not place for no hero. This ain't no place for no minute man. This ain't no place for no hero to call home."

"Hey, miss, isn't there supposed to be Grimm attacking here," Qrow asked but Gaige never heard him. "Hmm. Interesting."

—oo000oo—

Roman Torchwick just ran out of the Dust shop, escaping one girl, only to run smack into another. "Hello, would you happen to be Roman Torchwick?"

"Yeah," he growled, raising his cane and firing the grenade inside right at her. The stupid girl didn't even try to move.

And why was explained when she stepped out of the smoke, waving her metal hand in front of her face. "Now that isn't nice. Tell you what though, give up now so I can claim the full price on your head, or don't and I shall settle for half." Roman answered by diving behind a car and reloading. "It'll be easier on everyone if you just give up," Gaige called before pulling out the Greed. "Last warning!" The cane came up and again shot her. "...Half price it is!" Gaige started firing, making sure he stayed behind cover as she began moving. Firing seven rounds, she flipped out the cylinder, cast out the empty casings, and used a speed loader to reload. All done in just under a second. But she didn't fire, just aimed. "Nothing like reloading in a firefight," she called. "Feeling of metal sliding into place as you reload a revolver one round at a time!" Roman took the bait and raised enough to aim his cane once more at her. She fired first.

"Bloody hell," he shouted as the cane damn near exploded in his hand. Casting aside the ruined weapon, Roman instead began running.

"Now that was a great shot," someone called from behind Gaige, making her spin around to see who spoke. "Whoa, whoa, easy," this girl with a red cloak and large scythe called. "He's getting away!"

Growling at her mistake, Gaige turned back around and ran after him. Aiming as she did, she held her fire a moment before... Greed jerked in her hands and Roman screamed, falling to the ground, and grabbing just above his left knee. She missed, somehow; she had meant to blow his leg off at the knee. Slowing to a walk, Gaige stepped over to Roman and aimed at his head. "Bet you wished you took the full price now, don't cha?" She pulled back the hammer and was about to shoot him.

"What are you doing," that same girl demanded, pushing Greed to the side.

"I am about to kill him to fulfill the bounty contract I took on him." Her machine arm grabbed her second pistol on her belt, the Grog Nozzel, and pointed it at Roman. "Don't even think of moving. You, let go of my gun."

"He's defeated!"

"So?"

"So you can't just kill him!"

"Why not, unless I have misread and he is actually wanted for something to do with a muffin, Roman Torchwick is wanted for _murder_ as well as theft."

"What kind of Huntress are you!?"

"I am a Vault Hunter and my patience is officially worn...thin." They all turned their heads to see a bullhead swinging about, a woman inside it at a minigun and aiming it at them. "Thanks." Gaige and the red cloaked girl ran to separate sides of the street, dodging fire.

"Roman, get your ass moving," the woman cried as the bullhead lowered and the bullets flew.

Jumping behind a car, Gaige called out her Cobra sniper rifle before spinning around and setting it against the car trunk. Displayed on her HUD, she could see that not every bullet was being absorbed by her shield, the Transfomer, and it was actually getting bites taken from it. _'This cars isn't gonna last much longer.'_ She fired and the bullet hit the starboard engine with an explosion, rocking the bullhead. Hearing a much louder bang, Gaige guessed someone figured out to do the same thing. Roman finally dragged himself on board the bullhead and it started pulling up and turned. Big mistake. The problem with VTOL vehicles is that the engines are on rotating joints. A joint that was just revealed by the pilot. The Cobra spit fire once more and it hit perfectly. The already damaged engine couldn't take it anymore and shot off, spinning out the bullhead and making it crash.

Pulling out the Greed once more, Gaige ran after it and quickly found the downed vehicle. Though the cabin was empty, within the cockpit she saw the pilot sitting in the chair still, head down and rebar through their shoulder and into the seat. Grabbing him and turning to face her, she was about to demand where they were heading only to see a hole in his head. He was done for, they couldn't take him with so they killed him instead. "Damn it." Looking inside the cab, she found a blood trail and smiled. Roman was still her's. But before she could go after him, the girl in the red cloak grabbed her arm.

"What is wrong with you!?"

"What is wrong with me, what about you!? I had Torchwick dead to rights! If you had stayed out of it, this wouldn't have happened!"

"He was defeated!"

"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE HE WAS DEFEATED!?" Gaige spread her arms at the wreckage and the damage the gunner had wrought. "Now I have to chase him down, AGAIN, to make sure that murdering bastard doesn't hurt someone else with the chance YOU gave him!"

"Killing a defeated, kneeling man is wrong!"

"I'll be sure to mention you said that to the families of the people he _has_ killed and _will_ kill! Which will be YOUR FAULT!"

"Freeze, both of you!" Gaige and Red looked around and saw that they had become surrounded by police in their argument. "Drop your weapons, now!"

Red laid her scythe on the ground, Gaige raised her hands, Greed hanging from a finger by the trigger guard a moment before dropping and vanishing in a shower of square lights, followed by Gaige getting down to her knees with her hands behind her head. "Guess you're familiar with this step, huh," one officer said, patting her down, taking her belt of equipment, and cuffing her hands behind her back. "Someone grab a cyborg restraint!" Gaige could feel something placed on her arm before a metal band wrapped around it and then her torso.

"Okay, we have IDs. Ruby Rose, student at Signal Academy and Gaige Crescent, registered member of the Bounty Hunters Association."

"Get a wagon here, there's a body in the cockpit!"

"I have blood here."

"You two have a lot to answer for," Gaige heard the cop behind her say.

"Hey, I didn't do this," Ruby protested.

"Just shut up and wait. Assuming we have the right to remain silent in this country and that, as a minor, you can't be charged or even questioned without your parent or guardian present," Gaige stated.

She could hear the cops frown around her. "Where is the gun," one questioned her.

"What gun?"

"The one you had in your hand!"

"I dropped it."

"Where did it go!?"

"I dunno," she dismissed with a shrug of her shoulders. She could also hear their patience already wearing thin.

"Take them to a patrol car, we'll question them at the station."

Gaige smirked as she was taken to a car and put in back along side Ruby. Leaning forward enough to use the divider between the front and back of the car to push her cap down over her face, she shifted around to get as comfortable as she could and closed her eyes. "Are you really going to go to sleep," Ruby asked incredulously.

"Yup."

"How can you be so nonchalant about this!?"

"...Because the only person that died was killed by the other criminals to keep from talking to the police, the damage was caused by the criminals, and as I am a registered bounty hunter, while they will likely chew my ass, they may just thank me for almost catching Roman. And well, you? You're a minor so yeah."

"That sounds very optimistic."

"Just relax already. Worse comes to worse, I'll just break out."

"How?"

"Two things, Ruby. One, they're listening in on every word we say. Two, I have some mad skills. Going to sleep now."

—oo000oo—

Even after being put in a questioning room, Gaige just leaned back and relaxed. Something that was easier to do once her flesh arm was released from her machine arm. They did the full list once they got here. Finger prints, examining of her metal limb, blood sample, and now she was playing the waiting game. When finally someone entered, she looked up and saw a gray haired man with a coffee mug in his hands. "Hello Miss Crescent, I am..."

"Coffee."

"I'm sorry?"

"Offer me coffee."

"...You know, usually this isn't how these conversations go."

"Usually the person being questioned doesn't know you are interested in them and want something from them."

"...You are quite perceptive," he said with a smirk. He went over and tapped on the observation mirror as he said, "Would you like some coffee?"

"I would love some. With a scoop of hot chocolate mix if you can, if not then crème and sugar is fine. So, ask your questions."

"Where would you like to begin, what you did out there or what you possess? Or maybe how I personally believe that what little information that can be found about you was hacked into existence."

"Hmm. Well, as for there being little information, over a third of the population on Remnant isn't registered with the information hubs in the big cities so it is quite likely that there is no information to be found and I just put that out there to make my life easier while doing business."

"I thought as much, Miss Crescent. So then, let me ask about this." He placed a Scroll on the table and widened it, showing video footage of her shooting at Roman. "Every shot is perfectly placed and each round punched through the vehicle he hid behind. Had he not been behind a car _and_ using his aura, he would be dead."

"I am of the opinion that if the situation has come to shooting, you don't hold back, you end it as quickly as possible."

"And this shot here," he said, showing when Roman was running and she shot him through the leg. "Your bullet just punched through his aura entirely and would have taken his knee off if not for his aura pushing the shot off.."

"That was the point of that shot."

"...What about this here?" He began playing the footage where she would be shot herself. "I don't know many people that can just ignore a grenade exploding in their face."

"My aura is strong."

"How about this?" This time it was when she switched out Greed for Cobra. "Very interesting motif on the rifle, by the way. A sniper rifle that fires explosive rounds. Interesting to say the least. And the way it appeared."

"My semblance."

"Which means you could summon one of your weapons now?"

"Why would you ever think that?"

"...How about this, what is that over your eyes?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Currently, Gaige was looking over her Bandit made Blasster assault rifle, E-Tech shock. Used up ammo and was slow to reload, even for her, but when in use, it was scary. Especially on the end the bullets come out. She had her Echo ready to summon it, just in case she did need to break out.

"...Could you explain to me what these are?" His Scroll showed pictures of her possessions. "No one can activate them, nor can they open them, even the lunchbox." That got a snort from Gaige.

"They're all ID locked to me. It wouldn't be good if just anyone could take my stuff and use it against me."

"So what are they?"

"Hmm." Gaige didn't answer but she did smile.

"...How's that coffee coming," he suddenly asked, turning to the observation window. A moment later, a cop came in, grumbling about getting a brat coffee. "With a spoon full of hot chocolate mix?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Sweet," Gaige said, taking it and sipping it. "Hmm, that is so good. My semblance actually involves electricity. Those devices allow me to use it in many different ways."

"Oh?"

"Oh yes," she said with a nod and another swallow. "That round, flat device? It lets me throw electricity like a bolt of lightning that when it hits the ground or target, will jump from target to target. To target to target to target."

"That's handy when in a enemy rich environment."

"Yup, I just call it the Chain Lightning. This here, on the other hand, does many things," she said, tapping her shield. "The Transformer. It completely absorbs electricity, emits a field around me to enhance my own aura, and..." She began smirking like the Cheshire Cat. "Well, it may have also absorbed those bullets for me to send right back."

"...Is that possible? I've never heard of such technology."

"Oh, I bend three different laws of reality with it, to be sure."

"...And the lunchbox?" On the front of it was four face cards that looked a lot like Gaige doing the horns handsign.

"The Legendary Roboteer. It carries tools for me to use and a few devices to further enhance my skill with electricity. It also carries sandwiches. You know, I can use electricity to set things on fire. It's rather neat."

"...And where did these come from?"

"They came from me," she replied, partially lying here. She did make the lunchbox, kinda. Okay, she made the design on the front.

"You did?"

"Why not? I made this arm," she nearly shouted, shrugging her machine shoulder. "And I only had one arm to do it with."

"Yes, and about the arm, it truly is impressive. Rarely see such technology even in Atlas. You made that?"

"Yeah." She took another drink. "That really is good."

"So, what is all the tech built into it?" Gaige grinned again and didn't answer. "How about this, why were you so determine to kill Roman Torchwick?"

Gaige's smile dropped right there. "Dead murderers kill less people than live ones," she said simply.

"Do you feel that the best way to handle it?"

"Once the bullets started flying, yes. You saw the video, he had no qualms about trying to kill me. If I was someone else, you would be looking at a corpse. So yeah, not going to feel bad about what I tried to do. No matter what you people think."

"You are quite mistaken, Miss Crescent. I am not going to chastise you, I believe you handled the situation admirably. You gave him a chance to surrender, you kept the damage to a minimum, and you were able to effectively subdue Roman Torchwick until...interference allowed help to arrive. By the way, not many can hit the joint of a tilt-rotor engine."

"Then what is the problem?"

"I rather believe that skills like this are wasted in..."

"No," Gaige interrupted.

"Excuse me?"

"No."

"You didn't even let me finish."

"You want me to join you, work for you, so on, so forth. You want to say to me where I point my guns and when to shoot. You want me to explain how my equipment works. You want to duplicate it for yourself. Allow me to spell it out in the simplest way I can. I am a treasure seeker, a Vault Hunter, nothing more. Headmaster Ozpin."

"So you know me."

"And I know you go few places without your right hand, Professor Glynda Goodwitch." Gaige's mechanical fingers pressed around on the restraint until she found the spot needed and she began hacking it with her Echo through her limb. After a few moments, the restraint collapsed and she tossed it on the table. "Am I being charged with a crime?"

"No."

"Then I am collecting my possessions and leaving." She grabbed her mug a final time and finished it off. "My compliments to who ever made this."

"...Then how about I hire you to collect a bounty," Ozpin asked as she walked by him.

"...Oh?"

"I checked around, Miss Crescent, you are looking for something. This Vault you mentioned maybe? You do jobs needed to pay for food. Not to pay for a place to stay. How many villages and towns have called for Hunters only for you to show up, acting like you lost your way, and kill all the Grimm like they are nothing? And then, at most, take a little money, sometimes none at all, and something to eat before heading back into the wilds."

"..."

"And here you are now, hunting Vale's most wanted, going on and on about how he could hurt others since he escaped."

"Do you have a point?"

Ozpin jumped up and spun around to face her. "You want to be a hero. You want to help people, to protect them and keep them safe from the dangers of the world."

"That's a bold proclamation."

"You could have escaped from here at any time with no one able to stop you. But you didn't because doing so would kill the men and woman that work in this station. A heartless bounty hunter would never be so concerned."

"Maybe I just didn't want the hassle."

Ozpin held up his scroll and it began playing interviews. _"She was soooo coooool! She had this metal arm that she swung at a beowolf and SQUISH, it exploded! And it shot lightning from it!"_

"_That young lady just walked right in, paying little mind to the Grimm that were growling at her and just asked for directions to the local ruins. And when this King Taiju lunged at her, she jumped up over it, almost like one of those cartoons I watched as a child, before summoning...something. It was a machine to be sure. And then she shot it with that revolver of hers and it began to give off lightning. It began clawing up the Taiju, first one head and then the other, before turning a...laser on the others. And her, she pulled out this submachine gun from this...shower of light, and started shooting the others."_

"_Yeah, I think I heard her say her name was Gaige. You should have seen it, she was like Death itself, twisting, turning, and every time she fired, something died in an explosion of lightning. And when it was over, she just asked for something to eat. She likes hot coco. A lot. And then she literally walked off into the sunset too. A hero from the movies."_

"_A revolver, a submachine gun, a rocket launcher that fires six at once with a magazine, she reloaded after four shots, yikes, it was... I'm not sure if I should be scared that this is the kind of person needed to fight the Grimm anymore or encouraged, that someone like that is out here, fighting for us."_

"_An Ursa got behind her and hit her in the back. I thought for sure that was it, this brave little girl was dead but... She flew through the air like you would expect but then she spun around, hit the ground on her feet and fired this rifle. The bullet exploded on impact. Never even lost her balance."_

"_A Boartusk got through the wall and... We snuck out of the shelter, a few friends and I! We wanted to see everyone fighting them off but it was...real scary. And the boartusk came right at me. I was never so scared before but I stood in front of them holding this stick like I've seen other do and... Then that lady showed up. Just BANG and killed it in one shot! Then she walked over to me and pat me on the head, between my ears. Said that was really brave to get between it and my friends. She told me that, um, real men don't let others be hurt, just like I tried to do. But until I know how to fight like she can, that I should fight smart. So no more looking for trouble until I can give better than I can get. I...I'M GONNA BE A HUNTER, A HERO, THE BEST THERE HAS EVER BEEN, JUST LIKE HER!"_

"_We were done for once that Alpha Deathstalker showed up, the wall, it was already so beaten, it would never hold. And then, running out of the forest, this girl with red hair came, holding this revolver. Every time she fired, something died. They, they seemed to ignore us for her and, and, lightning shot around, I heard explosions, and I heard her laugh a few times too. When it was over, she just spun her pistol before holstering it. Then she did something I don't get. She tried to claim the money for the hunters we called for but didn't arrive in time. Kept insisting that's why she did it. Tried to just play it off. I don't know why she wants to be thought like that but she didn't fool me, Gaige the Mechromancer is a hero."_

"Stop, stop, stop," Gaige said, taking his scroll, shutting it off, and throwing it on the table. "I'm no hero."

"Oh, do I need to play the rest of the interviews, there was another twenty three about this brave, little, red haired girl that would suddenly jump in, killed the monsters, and 'walk off into the sunset'."

"There are no heroes where I come from," Gaige said with a frown. "What is the job you want me to do?"

"There are multiple parts."

"That just makes the price go up."

—oo000oo—

Inside observation, Ruby stood back by the wall, not too far from her new professor and a few officers. The start of the questioning played out much like she expected but to hear those recordings was something else. "She really helped all those people?"

Professor Goodwitch glanced at her and said, "Yes. There has been no less than eleven incidents around the world that she has involved herself in. Truth be told, I feel that she is more qualified to go to Beacon than yourself. Right now that is."

"Makes me glad she didn't resist," one of the arresting officers muttered. "Takes some serious firepower to kill boartusk in a single shot. Especially from a pistol."

"I had no idea, I thought she was..." Ruby muttered but trailed off.

"I suspect she doesn't want to be thought of as anything else," Goodwitch stated. "The question is why."

—oo000oo—

"A police interrogation room isn't the best place to have this conversation, wouldn't you say," Ozpin offered.

"No, I guess it isn't," Gaige replied.

"So, before we go and negotiate, I just have one question. I am prepared to spend a great deal of lien on you so I hope this isn't too much to ask. Despite all that you do, _why_ don't you want to be called a hero?"

Gaige's fingers brushed a black band on her left upper arm, one with white wings stitched around a rifle, and said, "Maybe because I'm not."

"I don't believe that."

"You should."

"Convince me then."

"Oh no, I see what this is. Information digging. " Gaige headed to the door, tried the handle only to find it locked, switched to her machine hand, broke the door lock from how hard she twisted, and opened it. Tossing the ruined handle to an officer, she said, "Send me the bill. Where's my stuff?"

"Here, ma'am." One guy offered a bin to her and she put her chain belt back into place, made sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and nodded to him.

"Anyone have any helpful tips about Roman Torchwick?"

"I have a list of back alley doctors they might take him too," one of the other officers offered. He pulled up a scroll and flicked it at her, sending the datafile. "Good luck, ma'am."

"Thank you..." Gaige looked around at the entirely different treatment she was getting as opposed to coming in, and sighed. "Look, I'm not a hero, enough with the 'ma'am' stuff."

"Do you need a ride to the first point, um, ma'am?"

Gaige sighed and shook her head. "No, I've got it handled." Walking outside, Gaige rolled her left fingers a few times before activating the digistructor in her arm, spawning a Torque Bike before driving off, her Echo already marking where she needed to get to. Before she got there, she got a text with an address and time above the word _Negotiations_. It made her growl a little that Ozpin still wasn't giving up.

—oo000oo—

"That could have gone better," Glynda Goodwich said after fixing the door handle.

"Yes. Which do you think it was, did she fail to save someone or did she hurt someone?"

"Who knows. What I do know is that she is skilled and confident in that strength. Undisciplined, of course, but I believe that has helped her. Doesn't seem the type to respond well to strictness."

"My, Glynda, do you actually like a prospective student?"

"Hardly. I respect her apparent skill, I would be a fool not to. And I know you don't want her as a student. It would be a waste of her talents and my time."

"Very true. Well, regardless, we did receive one student tonight and Miss Crescent didn't say no."

—oo000oo—

Every back alley doctor and surgeon in the dark parts of the city and not one of them helped Roman. Or at least they didn't say they did. And unless she wanted to rearrange someone's hand, there would have been no getting it from them. Though one did offer a pretty penny to study how her nerves connected to her prosthetic. That is where she found herself now. Talking to a greedy, old man. "Yeah, not going to happen. I can tell you now that connecting them hurt and I'm not letting someone that doesn't know what they are doing poke and prod it."

"Come now, little girl, I can be very reasonable. Such a thing would help out a lot of people. People that can't afford big hospitals and big hospital bills."

"Hmmm. Tell you what, I'll get you a datafile. And give it to you for free. IF you contact me the moment Roman Torchwich or someone that works with him gets in touch with you. Do we have a deal?"

"Oh yes, very much so."

Turning away and getting a datachip, she said, "Ill need a few minutes." The datafile itself wouldn't take five seconds to make, she still had copies of her original designs and the ones she downloaded from the Echonet to use. Copying the Anshin shoulder and hip docking joints and a basic Pangolin arm and leg that didn't have sensation, she set them in a file along with a tracking bug. Even Doctor Zed could make the two of them work together but here on this planet, it would take far more expertise than this man had to work it. Someone like Roman Torchwick or other unfriendly people. "I'll be expecting your call," she told him, tossing him the chip and heading for the door. Leaving a card by the door, she left with, "My number." Doing her best not to glance back, she walked away and turned a corner before climbing up onto the roof and watching the house. Hacking into the man's scroll was just child's play.

"_I'm telling you this little girl is worth more than the purest Dust crystal. She has that limb on full display, there is no ports for dust to power it and she uses it like a normal hand."_

"_Isn't that the point,"_ a female voice that she didn't recognize asked.

"_Of course its the point. But a metal hand as good as a flesh, I thought it was a dream before I saw her. I had her perform some hand movement test and it's almost as good as the real thing, with the strength to crush a man's head to go with. I'm looking over some blueprints she gave me and its all very incredible. But the size makes it impossible to transfer wirelessly." _Actually, that was Gaige putting a lock on the file.

"_...Which would be more helpful, the blueprint or her?"_

"_Both would be ideal."_

"_We'll set a trap for her then. This girl, is she wearing a cap, red hair, might have this large revolver?"_

"_Yeah, that's her!"_

"_Good. Get me those blueprints."_

"_I'll have to physically take them there."_

"_Just do it."_

The called was ended and a few moments later, the doctor walked out of the house, glancing around before getting in his car and driving off. Jumping down, Gaige summoned her bike again before chasing after him.

—oo000oo—

"Well, isn't this place just seedy. Almost like Moxxi's." The good doctor has gone into a club. Walking in after him, she saw him talking to a man with two women at his side.

"Excuse me miss, you can't..." Whatever the bouncer was going to say was cut off when Greed was pulled and pointed at his nose over her shoulder. Looking to him with an arched eyebrow, she waited for him to finish. "...Y-You can't bring in outside drinks, I thought you had something. Never mind me."

"Oh, alright," she said sweetly as she holstered her gun. Heading back for the bar, she walked up to the doctor unnoticed until she rested her metal arm around his neck, and pressed Greed up under his chin. "Why Doctor, this isn't who I wanted to speak to."

"Ma'am, I, uh, this is Junior, he deals in information."

"You don't say," Gaige said, looking to Junior with a critical eye. "Hello Junior."

"Hello, Gaige Crescent," he replied, leaning forward. "You make waves, young lady."

"That I do. So, you were here to ask Junior where Roman Torchwick is, right Doctor?"

"Of course!"

"And not to drop off that datachip so that he may pass it along to someone?"

"N-No."

"Huh..." She looked to Junior as she pulled back the hammer. "Do you believe him?"

"...Can't say I would," Junior stated.

"That makes two of us," Gaige stated. "Especially since I hacked into your scroll when you called someone. A woman." The Doctor began to sweat. "A woman that said she would set a trap for me so that they could get not only the blueprint but also my arm and shoulder to study. Why, Doctor, I feel so betrayed! You just can't trust anyone anymore, can you?"

"Nope, doesn't look like it," Junior stated.

"Well, as I doubt you know where Roman Torchwick is, I want you to give back the datachip." She said this staring right at Junior, watching him.

"I-I can't." Gaige made a show of pulling out the cylinder, removing all but one round out of it, spun the cylinder, before flicking it shut. "What are you going to do?"

"Give me the chip."

"I, I..."

_Click._

"How lucky are you, Doctor? Give me the chip." When she pulled the trigger again, he whimpered but stood his ground. Maybe that was because her arm was holding him up though. "Where is..." Suddenly smelling something a bit foul, Gaige, Junior, and the two women beside him looked down and found the doctor had peed himself.

"Oh Dust," he said in shame.

"..." Gaige stepped away, shaking her head, before raising her fist and driving it back into his face, knocking him out. "...You...back home, there wasn't a whole lot of surrendering but there also wasn't any of that."

"That was a bit disgraceful," the woman in red stated.

Gaige sighed before facing Junior. "That datafile has a bug on it, I know it is already in your left pocket. You might want to remove it."

"Hmm. You'll find I'm a bit harder to intimidate than he is, Red."

Gaige smiled, fully reloaded Greed before holstering it. Instead she pulled out the Badaboom. "So, nice place you have here. It would be a shame if..."

"Okay, okay," Junior placated, white as a sheet now. "...Who even has a magazine fed rocket launcher?" He pulled the chip from the pocket and held it out. "Can we go back to being threatened with the pistol please?"

"I don't want to threaten you, Junior," Gaige stated, returning the rocket launcher to its storage unit. She picked up the chip, looking it over, before saying, "My price is still good. The blueprints for dustless robotic arms and legs with the joints needed to attach them to a person, for Roman Torchwick. I think an information dealer like you is more neutral than actually on the side of anyone. Which means that this is only the drop off point. So, why not work with me here? I doubt you have any true loyalty to Roman or the woman he contacted."

"Hmm. But that is bad for business," Junior pointed out.

"I can point a gun to your crotch if it would help you," Gaige offered.

"I'd rather not and..." Junior paused before smirking. "You are quite a clever girl."

"Oh?"

"Shout loud enough and eventually someone will come to see what the noise is about," Junior stated. "You didn't just get lucky with the doctor, you went looking, you _want_ Roman to know you are coming for him."

"...It will make him afraid. Which will make him stupid," Gaige confirmed. "So, do you want to be the one to tell me or let someone tell him?"

Junior thought about it a moment before turning to the bar and motioning to his side. "You are a bold one, Red," he stated as Gaige took the offered seat. "What's your poison?"

"Scotch whiskey, neat. If you have it, that is."

"Yeah, not a popular drink but it has enough demand." He motioned to the bartender for two. "Roman will have gone to ground right now, he works for someone that is both powerful and wants him alive pass the month. Once I have a certain location for him, I will contact you and give it."

"Good. My number," she said, writing it down on a napkin and passing it over. She set the datachip down as well but Junior held up his hand.

"You keep it, pay me when I have something for you."

Gaige smiled and pocketed it. "You're a classy guy, Junior, I like classy guys. Well, them and complete studs."

"I try. Besides, this is so much better than when this blond girl drops by. You didn't trash the place and you're paying me."

Gaige took a sip and smiled at the smoothness. "That is good. So much better than that Zafford rotgut. Heh, a guy I like a lot once said nothing is more badass than treating a woman with respect. I think if you like explosions more than I am seeing, you and him would get along great. So, Junior, mind if I stop by when I'm looking for information? No threats, no explosives."

"Hmm. And what would I get in return?"

"Twenty percent of all bounties you help me claim. Priced as if brought in alive."

"Twenty?"

"Roman Torchwick is worth one point five million lien, that means you are getting three hundred thousand lien just for pointing me in the right direction."

Junior actually started smiling at that. "Anyway I can get you to go to twenty five?"

"You can get me to go to fifteen."

"Twenty is fine."

"Good," Gaige said, holding out her hand to shake on it. "I love when business all comes together so perfectly."

Junior took the hand and was a bit surprise at the strength even her flesh arm had. "So do I, may our relationship be most profitable. I will have you information before the end of the week on Vale's top ten most wanted."

Gaige returned his smile before finishing her glass, almost closing her eyes at the delightfully warm feeling that spread through her torso. "I'm gonna have to come back for more of these. Be seeing you, Junior."

Junior watched her go and said, "I love working with bounty hunters, no grand plans, no schemes, just the target, the hunt, and the money. Wonderfully simple."

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: I started this about a year ago. The actual fine as of 7/27/2019 is 93 pages long. With Borderlands 3 coming out soon, I thought I should finally get around to posting it.

See you Space Cowboy.


	2. Weight of a Word

_**Or 'What have I unleashed?'**_

—oo000oo—

The next day, Gaige arrived at A Simple Wok, nodded to the proprietor and sat down at a table across from Ozpin and Goodwitch. Fifteen minutes early and they were here. She suddenly felt that if she was an hour early, they might have been here ahead of her. "Miss Crescent, let's get down to business if we shall."

"Of course," Gaige replied.

"The first task I have for you is rather simple. Roman Torchwick has been committing a chain of Dust thefts in Vale. I would like you to discover why. And tell me, of course."

"I'll make sure the little bird sings before his wings are clipped," Gaige stated.

"I on the other hand have something more instructional for you to do," Goodwitch told her. "You are the same age as entrance level students yet your skill couldn't be more different. I would like you to at times demonstrate that ability, show the students just what they are expected of. Be that in hunting Grimm, combat demonstrations, or in field and on campus sparring."

"That is certainly an interesting idea," Gaige muttered, cupping her chin with her metal hand. "Can I come up with a few ideas?"

"Within reason."

"Then I think having some teams of students hunting a 'fugitive' through one of the forest would be a good way to introduce me to them." Thinking on it later, Gaige might have given too large a smile.

"I shall consider it," Glynda said, tapping on her scroll.

"There is a final task, one I think states my confidence in your ability," Ozpin told her. "Are you familiar with White Fang?"

"I've heard of it."

"They're a faunus rights group that has turned to violent methods to get what they want."

"Yeah, no, its just the flag that the violent and the hateful gather around to excuse killing. So what, you want them gone?"

"I want it's leader detained."

"...That might be a touch difficult unless you know something I don't."

"I do not and not for a lack of trying. Which comes to one conclusion, we already know them. There is no one titled as the leader, one of the lieutenants must be calling the shots in secret."

"Ah, destroy the command structure then. I can do that. Will that be all?"

"That is all I have unless you have some great ability to heal all wounds."

Gaige blinked at that before holding her arm up. Taking a knife in her mechanical hand, she slashed her arm deeply. Before either teacher could panic, she wiped the blood away and displayed the wound knitting close in a mechanical fashion before their eyes. "I know what you're going to say, that auras _could_ heal wounds in a similar way. Just that not deeply, not that fast, and that was far too regulated for any natural ability."

"You have a machine that heals you," Ozpin asked a bit in awe.

"Yes. You see, when they took my belt at the precinct, they missed something very important. This." She moved her collar and showed a small, metal square that was grafted into her skin. She pressed a finger to it and grimaced as the lights left her eyes, the lines that went into her skin began retracting to the metal, and it grew bigger. Eventually, it looked like an old scroll, blocky, heavy, and with a screen and buttons on it. "This is what my equipment is all tied to. Programmed into it is a subroutine that grants me amazing healing. So long as my currently equip weapon is fully loaded."

"...I suppose I should question why that rule but I'm still amazed over this technology," Ozpin stated, his coffee mug finally set on the table as opposed to being in his hand.

"Matter of energy and processing power," Gaige stated, placing her echo back to her skin and reintegrating it with her. Again she grimaced as it dug into her flesh but it passed quickly. "And to answer the question you are no doubt wondering, no, no one else can get this off me unless I am dead and no, you cannot get the specs needed to make your own. This is one of a kind." _On this planet._

"So that keeps your equipment ID locked to you. Most impressive. Microscopic wires that move through the body like nerves, mild discomfort in applying... That is a HUD on your eyes, isn't it?"

"Yes. It monitors my physical health, my shield, ammunition supply, direction, calls, so on. So really, it is just like a scroll."

"Oh, far from it," Glynda stated. "Even the most experimental of Atlas technology is no where near this advance."

"Miss Crescent, while I am grateful that you are more open than the last time we spoke, who are you, truly, and where are you from?"

Gaige just smiled, her echo fully reinitialized now. "I _am_ Gaige Crescent. I'm from this little place called Eden. It's a small island in between Atlas, Vale, and Mistral."

"...Some how, I don't quite believe you."

Her smile just grew. "Maybe I'm a Ghost, a creation of the net, self-aware and created a body for myself from Atlas tech. Or possibly I'm an alien from this far off planet called Pandora." Neither Ozpin or Goodwitch were amused. "Where I am from matters little, doesn't it? The past irrevocably marches into the present and the present the future. I am here now. I wasn't before and one day, I won't be again. All that you need concern yourself is that I am hunting something, the Vault, and all else is what I do to make things connect in the mean time."

"...Then I have another question. What is the Vault?"

"Now that's the thing, isn't it? Until I actually open it, I don't know. Some friends opened one, expecting treasure, and found a monster. I've opened one Vault and it activated a Warrior, a stone construct that would do whatever it's master commanded. It's master just so happened to command it to kill me so yeah, had to destroy it. I have opened a Vault that had treasure in it. So it contains either trouble or reward."

"Should you be looking for it if..."

Gaige set an eridium ingot on the table followed by a Seraph Crystal. "...Go on, take a look over them."

They each reached out and grabbed an object. "I have never seen a Dust Crystal this pure," Goodwitch offered. "Your technology makes so much more sense now. This...I'm no expert in Dust but this might never run out of energy."

"This refined Dust crystal as well," Ozpin said, tapping the ingot with the spoon and listening to it ring. "This is incredible. And these could be in the Vault? I suppose that could be worth a little trouble. Could I, wait, why would you be a bounty hunter or even hunt for this Vault if you have these? This alone is enough to live the rest of your life without working. Sell the other and it would be in complete comfort."

Gaige stopped moving for a moment before sighing. "Maybe because its all I know to do? I ask that question a time or two a month. I know I don't have to, but I can't stop. Maybe its just the influence of others, the ones that want me to give up and quit that makes me keep going." Gaige reached out for the items, when the Seraph Crystal was in hand, it was transported back into her storage deck units. Getting another look of appraisal from Goodwitch. "...Professor Ozpin?"

"I was just wondering if I could send a sample of this to a friend."

"...Hand it here." Setting it on the table before her, Gaige set her lunch box on the table and opened it, grabbing one of the tools inside and carefully setting it at the wrist of her metal limb. Machines reached out, grabbing the tool, and attached to it, powering it up. Setting a mat on the table and the ingot on top of it, she careful activated the tool, showing it to be a tiny laser. She cut off a two centimeter thick slice from across the end before removing the cutting laser and handing the small piece to the Headmaster. "That is all you are getting." She arched an eyebrow when it began to ring in his hands just like it would with a siren or other eridian enhanced individual.

"...What could even this little do, I wonder," he asked carefully, holding it up to look it over. Gaige returned the rest of ingot and put everything away. "How close to yourself would this push us?"

"That depends on how competent your scientist are," Gaige told him. "I made this arm myself before anything else. Well, one thing else." She could practically hear Deathtrap purring at that. "That was two years ago, and I have since upgraded it. A friend of mine always wonders how I do it all without help and only one arm."

"...Well, since you brought it up."

Gaige shook her head and clasped her hands in front of her face. "Nope. That little secret stays with me. So, I have my assignments, I suppose there is only one thing left to settle. My price."

"No matter what, I feel we are about to get a very poor deal," Goodwitch muttered.

"Yes. Do you even want Lien?"

"Lien is a sign of respect," Gaige stated. "I, in all honesty, have more money than I could spend in a thousand life times. That's with me continuing to use bullets like I do, too. And it almost all comes from jobs I was hired to do. Okay, a fair bit comes from killing monsters for fun and profit but still."

"You keep using that, monsters, not Grimm."

"Because not all monsters _are_ Grimm," Gaige replied. "Now don't try to sidetrack me. If I do these, what form will your respect take?"

"...That we will pay you is obvious. But instead of all of it being in Lien, would you also take services?"

"Such as?"

"Well, to start with, a base of operations," Ozpin offered. "A place to stay, food to eat, whenever you are in the area."

"...Is that all?"

"For whatever reason, you move about from place to place, never returning to the same spot. You eat, you maybe take some things with you, and then you move on. From your movements, you don't have a place you return to. Am I wrong?"

"Actually, you are, I have a ship I use as a base. You don't exactly see me using normal transit, now do you?"

"We have looked for boats and airships. I have found nothing to indicate anything other than private transportation services."

"I...hold on, I'm getting a call." Reaching a hand up, she dragged the picture of Axton down. "Hey, Axton, how's it going?"

"_Good. I just finished up on Argent Four. I can swing by if you need a hand. You know, many hands, light work."_

"Hmm. And I do love watching you work, stud. But I haven't found anything I can't handle yet. And you know I never work alone."

"_Yeah, never could forget a bandit clan trying to either run away or overwhelm a cute little girl and her robot." _

"In negotiations right now, they just found out that I have more money than God so are probably hoping to save a few bucks."

"_Eh, why not do it? Not like their money is good anywhere else."_

"Its the principle," Gaige said a bit more animatedly. "I'm a mercenary, when I fight for other people, I fight for money."

"_Says the little girl that came to Pandora hoping to do some..."_

"Axton!" Goodwitch and Ozpin both almost jumped at her suddenly shouting. "Sorry. Axton, you know how I feel about that."

"_I do, kid, you think I don't feel horrible about killing Angel and losing Roland?"_ Gaige was so glad the two before her couldn't hear him speaking. _"If any of us deserved to live, it was those two. But just saying that there are no heroes on Pandora and trying to be a complete bastard is a piss-poor way to dealing with your grief."_

"Doesn't mean we couldn't have done something different. We..." Gaige turned off the translator and continued. _"You heard her screams just as I did. Killing some psycho yelling about stripping flesh and salting it doesn't make me lose sleep. That does. So, now that Roland is dead, there are no heroes on Pandora. Just damaged goods." _When he said nothing, she turned the translator back on.

"_...Yeah, I'm dropping by," _Axton stated.

"What!? Axton, I don't need your help!"

"_Not saying you do, kiddo, I know that if the entire world came together to kill you, you could handle it. You just need someone there to help you realize that one, you aren't on Pandora anymore."_ Gaige actually winced at that. _"And two, we're a team and friends. And both of those know that when the other is hurting, their place is right there by them."_

"...You're an asshole, you know that right? I wanted to prove that I can handle it all just as well as the others. Me, the cute little girl, the odd one out."

"_Gaige."_

"I mean look at us, a former marine, a siren, a cyborg ninja, a dual wielding bandit slayer, a guy with a buzzax that explodes and pecks that have pecks. And the cute little girl with the metal arm...and robot that shoots lasers."

"_Yeah, and rockets, and lightning and fire, and the bullets that can bounce off walls, and lord help us all, your Anarchy. Gaige, stop trying to distract me, I know you don't have confidence issues. You are probably the scariest among us. Even counting Salvador's breath. You are a woman of science and kickassery."_

"Damn it," she grunted.

"_Look, it won't be more than a month before I'm there. If you don't got it by then, I'll help. If you do, then just wait for me, we'll hit up a beach or something, and have some fun before heading for home. Maybe that will get you back to normal."_

"...I'm assigning you as a target for Deathtrap, you know that right?"

Axton's understanding face suddenly lost it's smile. _"Are...you serious?"_

"The moment this call is over," she grumbled.

"_...Yeah, still coming. Now where did I put that Nuke'em? Tina, where's the Nuke'em!?"_ Axton trailed off as he started looking for the heavy weapons.

"...Wait a second, Axton, you have Tina with you? Axton? Axton! You are not bringing Tina here! Axton!?" It was too late, she was just talking to a blank window. She sat there for a minute, completely frozen, at the though of what Tiny Tina and her love of all things explosive, and her two 'puppies', a burning, badass skag named Enrique and a phonic kraggon named Jean, will do to the completely unprepared world of Remnant. Was it wrong that part of her wanted to smile?

Coughing into her fist, Gaige flicked aside the communication window and steepled her fingers as she thought about this. "Problem," Ozpin asked.

"Just...a friend coming by. Thinks I'm hurting about something."

Goodwitch suddenly asked, "And who is Tina?

"She..." Gaige tilted her head, looking the two over. They looked nice, classy, mature; those suits certainly were nice. And her school uniform, while comfortable and modified for combat, was neither classy nor mature. "Ms. Goodwitch, stand up please."

"Excuse me?"

"Stand up." She did and so did Gaige. Walking around her, the twenty year old looked her over before settling on her face and hair.

"What are you doing," the teacher asked, using two fingers of her left hand to adjust her glasses. The motions of which Gaige mimicked. When her fingers clicked from touched her palm, Gaige looked to the hand, opening and closing her fingers as she considered something. "What are you doing," Goodwitch asked again.

"I think the better question is 'Who is Axton'," Ozpin spoke up. "And why does his coming here get this kind of reaction from you?"

Gaige frowned as she went back to comparing Goodwitch to herself. "Your tailor," she suddenly demanded. At a confused look, Gaige said, "Who and where is your tailor? Do they perform special orders?" Ozpin was grinning as he started to get an idea on just why she was upset. "I don't have long, two weeks to a month."

"I ask again, just who is this Axton?"

Gaige groaned before flicking her hand to Ozpin and then to Goodwitch. They both got a picture of a man in a soldier's uniform standing with an assault rifle raised to rest on his right shoulder. "He's Axton. Complete and total badass and stud and..." Here she did growl. "Once engaged until she broke it off."

"I see," Goodwitch said, looking it over. Twenty five to twenty seven if she had to guess. And in no way was he unattractive, she would say. Too rough and rugged for her, of course but to say a teenage girl, a guy with that much machismo would be almost irresistible. Which suddenly made sense why she was looking her over. Gaige could be called a girl. Glynda was the very definition of the word 'Lady'.

"Miss Crescent, how would you actually like to work with Professor Goodwitch as an aid?"

"Huh?"

"What!?"

"Not full time, of course. You have too much to do. But if you want to appear more mature when this Mister Axton arrives, I'm certain some etiquette lessons could help."

"Shouldn't you ask me before making such offers," Goodwitch asked, not grumbling as ladies don't grumble but not that far off.

"I..." Gaige turned away with a scoff. "That has to be the weakest attempt to lower the price I have ever heard! As if I would fall for that! I'll have you know I am very mature."

"On the battlefield," Goodwitch stated. "Your dealing with Torchwick has displayed that. And if he is a soldier, he has to have respect for your prowess. So I question why you think he might be attracted to me or my style." Gaige turned away before flicking her hand once more, sending a picture of a female soldier with a drawn on snidely mustache, blacked out tooth, eye-patch, and other defacements, so many you could barely see her under it. "Ahem." Gaige groaned before rolling her fingers, erasing her creative enhancements to reveal a woman with neatly combed, red hair tied into a bun, holding herself with poise, wearing a dress uniform, of decent rank if Glynda had guess, without an ounce of bravado. Something Axton, standing right next to her in his dress uniform, did not exactly show.

"That's his mumble, mumble."

"Speak up."

"That's his ex-wife!"

"I see," both Ozpin and Goodwitch offered.

"Well, I can certainly see the comparison, Glynda," Ozpin continued.

"...I hardly see what she sees in him though."

"Hey! Axton is a complete stud and that was the biggest mistake of her life," Gaige nearly shouted.

"...Not a very subtle crush, is it," Ozpin muttered.

"Excuse me, you are mistaking me for some little girl, I don't have crushes. I am well verse in the Double Hs."

"Double H," he queried.

"That after combat comes the 'Hungries and the Hor..."

"Don't explain it," Glynda interrupted. "So you are sexually active."

"Well, not so much as with other people right now," she muttered. "And why are we even talking about this!? How did our negotiations end up putting on display how many people I've fu..."

"You're shouting inside a restaurant," Glynda interrupted, getting Gaige to blush at what she was saying.

"Ahem, right. Regardless, this is seriously off track. Lien, numbers, math, or I'm out."

Ozpin considered it with his eyes closed a moment before saying, "Half a million."

"Torchwick alone is worth almost three times that."

"Then how much would you say this is worth?"

"Hmm. Five point three two million, not counting ammunition expenditure."

Glynda frowned and said, "It would be rather difficult to gather that much for a mercenary. It would be almost impossible to get the council to approve it."

"Then try a different figure," Gaige replied with a shrug.

"Two point seven," Ozpin countered.

"I guess we have nothing further to discuss," Gaige stated, moving away from the table.

"Do you want to help us or not," Goodwitch demanded. "What do you want?"

Gaige stopped and looked back with a grin. "Well, I suppose I can come up with something _besides_ lien. But I'm not going to tell you what it is." Sitting back down, she clasped her hands. "If you can guess what it is, I will confirm it, but all you truly need to know is that it isn't lien but is likely something you won't want to give away anyway. And you will only have to give it to me after our business is complete."

"What kind of deal is this," Ozpin asked.

"The kind where I hold the cards," Gaige stated. "So, how much do you want them dealt with, will you agree to pay an unknown price just to be rid of them? I promise, it is an object, a single object. Plus only a million lien, half paid in advance."

Watching her a moment, the two began to discuss it between the two of them. Suddenly, Ozpin said, "We reserve the right to suddenly ask you to do something. Especially if it involves using your healing tech to save a life."

"Hmm. I wonder what you are planning. Alright, I can agree to that. Call me when you want me to play with the kids. Otherwise, I shall send you reports when I get something. Oh, I'll inspect the room you offered when you call." Ozpin frowned but he did offer it and she never exactly declined it. "I also look forward to working with you as an aid, Miss Goodwitch."

"Now wait a second..."

"Ah-ah-ah, I never said no. I only changed out lien for an unspecified object. Everything you have offered is still on the table. And I still need the address and number for your tailor."

"...I'm going to find you infuriating, aren't I?"

"Probably not once I'm not holding over you two that I have the better end of this agreement, at the moment."

Ozpin glanced to his friend before taking a drink from his cup and said, "If your technology will be of use to us, we will need to be able to create an interface. While I'm sure you would prefer to keep it to yourself, when and if an emergency happens, we won't have time to come up with something then."

"...True enough," Gaige muttered, losing her grin. "That is, if I didn't have a way to extend that to others, either through machinery or other means. Nice try though." Gaige was about to leave but hesitated. "...I'm going to give you fair warning. Once the shooting starts between me and the White Fang, I have no intention of picking my shots. If they are there and they wear a mask, they are going to die. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes."

"I intend to do things to make them afraid. Are you okay with that?"

"So long as innocents don't suffer, yes. Before you get started though, who is Tina and why are you worried?"

"She's..." Gaige sighed. "Tina is one of the unlucky ones. Some bastard sold her and her family to be experimented on. She watched her parents die and it...she's damaged by it. She was able to escape because her mother told her to hide this red rock, a grenade, in her dress. Ever since she has been...fascinated by explosions. She barely remembered her parents for a long while. My friends and I have been trying to help her. Talking to her, letting her vent, playing fantasy role-playing games, helping her care for her...puppy and even got her another, the thing we've been doing the most is just taking her with us and getting her away from...there. She's actually doing better now. She's gotten to the point where she can accept the death of others. She can keep them alive in her games."

"...So you do have a heart," Ozpin said softly.

Gaige bristled at that and rounded on him. "Tina is a master with explosives _and_ a master beast trainer! Having Tina along is some of the best support a Vault Hunter can have! Don't mistake this for anything than... You're not buying this, are you?" Both adults just gave the smallest of smirks. "...I'm feeding you to Enrique and Jean when they get here. This is my account, have the half million transferred over by the end of the day." Nothing further to add, she turned and left.

—oo000oo—

Tinkering with her belt-fed Blasster assault rifle, cleaning the parts while also checking for damage, she barely glanced at the bank deposit notice her ECHO gave her before setting the belt into place and slapping down the lid before placing it on the harness on her back. Picking up her Badaboom, she aimed down from the rooftop she was on to the warehouse door of a White Fang outpost. "Knock, knock, you slaggin' bastards." She probably would've come to blows with these idiots sooner or later but it was always nice to do so when getting paid for it. Even if that money was no good off planet. Meh, she would probably give it to Junior or someone.

_**BOOOOM!**_

The six acid rockets slammed into the door and ate away at it, opening the way. Jumping down, Gaige grabbed her Blasster while also getting her Grog Nozzel ready to take up for something special. Aiming at the first White Fang idiot, she squeezed and three shots fired. Probably two too many but anything worth shooting is worth shooting thrice. There weren't that many people here, just eighteen. And sooner or later, someone would do what she needed.

Trying to shoot someone that had taken cover behind a generator, she didn't notice the machine gun being aimed at her until the first burst hit her. Even with her shield taking the blow, it knocked her aside. Must've been a big caliber. Didn't matter. Turning to it, she squeezed and didn't stop until the gun was scrap and the wielder cooked ground meat.

Hearing pants and a terrified scream, she spun around to see someone running. In an instant, Grog Nozzel was in her hands and she fired, putting the 'bullet' into her arm. Probably some dumb kid that had little idea what she was getting into. Didn't matter now. Grabbing the Blasster once more, she went back to clearing the outpost. Wouldn't take much now that she had her runner. "Chain Lightning!" Wasn't long until they were all dead and once they were, Gaige tossed a small package to the ground and set it to detonate. Walking back out, she set her ECHO to track the bug she shot the runner with. She was running away from the docks. Hopefully, it was to another base and not to a doctor. Summoning her bike and driving away, she didn't even look behind her as the warehouse exploded.

—oo000oo—

"What happened," a commander of the White Fang asked as a soldier from the docks outpost was held down and another tried to dig out the bullet in her arm.

"I have almost no idea," she said through gritted teeth. "Everyone is dead, that I do know! Just all of a sudden with no warning, a massive explosion hits the doors and splashes acid everywhere. A guy just ten feet from me fell to the ground and starts screaming. Then...someone just walks through what's left of the door and starts shooting. Someone got to the Fifty and starts shooting her and she just ignored the bullets before shooting them. Everyone was on fire and lightning and, GAH, fucking hell! Can you be a little careful!?"

"This damn thing has claws in it, it's a bitch to get out... I got a good hold on it, this is gonna hurt."

"Just get it out! ...FUCK!"

Ripping it out, he was about to throw it away when he paused and asked, "What kind of bullet is this?"

"Let me see that." The commander grabbed it and held it close for inspection. "...Its a dust damned tracking bug! That bastard let you run!" Running to his office, he activated the PA system and called out, "Our position has been compromised! Effect the burn of the base and scatter!"

—oo000oo—

Gaige looked up to the speakers while stepping pass the three dead guards. Maybe it was because of all the time she lived on Pandora but she felt like taunting them. Going to an intercom jack, she connected to it and overrode his commands.

—oo000oo—

"Too late for that, jackass," came over the speakers. "I'm already here. Tell me, did you truly think that you can inspire terror and there would be no consequence?" Looking up from where she was trying to bandage her arm after quickly being abandoned by the others, Jessica Manning began to shake in fear. "Someone, somewhere, was going to decide to hurt you back. **_Click. _**To inspire fear in you that you try to inspire in others. **_Clink, clink, clink. _**Did you really believe that superiority could be gained by blowing up a bomb in a store? Or that humanity would allow you to kill them all? **_CLACK! _**No, not a chance in all hell. I mean, when has humanity ever just rolled over and die? Well, I've reloaded, guess its back to killing you asshats for fun and profit. Be seeing you soon. Oh, before I go, allow me to introduce my friend. Deathtrap."

—oo000oo—

Killing the intercom, Gaige picked the Blasster back up and summoned her partner. "Get 'em, babe."

_Grrrr!_

—oo000oo—

Jessica ducked down and tried to hide, to block out the sounds. Gun shots, screams, rending of metal, breaking of concrete, explosions. The worst though were the moments of silence as whoever that person was hunted down more people only for it to start back up again when she found them. They wouldn't all die, some had to escape by now, running for their lives and leaving the rest for dead. And fear would spread, just like the voice told them it would. Grunts and screams coming closer now. **_Bang!_** Much closer, oh grimm, there were almost two hundred members in this base. **_Brat-ta-tat-ta!_** How can one person cause so much death?

"Get h-ragh agh AH!" The smell of overcooked flesh was sickening.

"Fall back, fall back!" She looked up to the door to see someone running in before his face was just gone, blown out from the back. Falling to his knees and twitching as electricity course through his body and burned it away. And right behind him stood the woman, holding this large handgun. And she was looking right at Jessica.

"I'm dead..." There are moments where you come to that horrific realization. That your choices led you to this instant and nothing you can do will stop it. Some struggle despite this, others surrender to the inevitable. Jessica surrendered. She didn't move, she didn't resist, she just watched and cried.

Gaige stepped inside, over the ashed remains, before reaching down and picking up her tracking bug. Pocketing it, she just tilted her head at Jessica as if trying to decide what to make of the bird eyed faunus before crouching down. Watching her for a second, Gaige finally spoke up. "Look at your friend right there." Against her will, Jessica did glance to it. "Now look at me. Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"Do you ever want to find out?"

"No."

"Do you think if I ever see you again, I will let you live?"

"No."

"Get rid of that ridiculous mask and run. You run back home to your family and you beg them for their forgiveness. If you ever pick up a gun again, I will find you. If you put that mask on again, I will find you. Do you think I _don't_ have the time and the patience to do that?"

"You do."

"Run."

Jessica ran. Faster than ever before. Longer than she thought possible. She ran through half of Vale, throwing that mask away somewhere she couldn't remember if she tried. She found her parents home and pounded on the door in desperation. Her mother opened the door and pulled her inside, asking where she had been. She didn't say. Her father asked her what happened to her. She didn't say. Eventually, they took her to the hospital to have her arm looked at. The doctors patched her up but she heard them say to her parents that they had to report all gunshot wounds to the police. A detective came, he seemed nice. His eyes weren't like _her's_. _Her_ eyes were cold, critical, always looking for the best way to kill you. His were warm and open. "Miss Manning, I am detective Ross Syllabus. I need to ask you a few questions. You're parents tell me you left just over a month ago, can you tell me where you were? ...Jessica?"

"...I fell into a bad crowd," she muttered. "I thought..."

"Thought what?" She didn't answer. "...Do you know who did this?"

"No."

"Can you describe them?"

"No."

Jessica's mother rested a hand on her shoulder. "Did you not see them?"

"...I did."

"What did they look like," Detective Sullabus asked.

"Death. They look like Death." The detective sighed but nodded and stepped away.

A little later, she could hear her father speaking to the detective, wanting to know what happened. "Sir, if I had to guess, I would say she became part of a gang, something that draws in angry teenagers. And that gang was just destroyed. Since there is no bullet, I'm going to say someone took pity on her and told her to run. The only thing that bothers me is that there has been no reports of violence beyond a single case of arson yesterday."

"So, what? You can't do anything!?"

"There isn't much I can do now sir but there is plenty you can do. She'll want to talk eventually. You and your wife just needs to listen when she does. Here's my card, when she's ready to talk, I'll be able to find the one responsible."

After that, Jessica was returned home but it was all a blur to her. Dinner came and went. When she laid down to sleep, she finally showed something. She couldn't stand the silence and turned the radio on. Shortly after, her father walked in, "Little Dove, you won't be able to sleep if you have this so loud."

When he reached for it, she almost shouted, "Don't turn it off, please! ...I can't stand the quiet."

Stopping and looking to her, he turned it down some a moment later and sat on the bed. "What's wrong, Jessica? Why are you scared?"

She looked away before muttered, "He was wrong, the one responsible was me."

"No, it isn't, Dove, it..."

"I joined White Fang," she admitted, making him freeze. "Even after you warned me to stay away, I still went to them. And... I'm sorry, daddy, I thought I was going to make things better. Even when I..."

"Don't say it," he interrupted, his voice soothing. "What happened?"

"...Someone hired someone, they were monstrous. I was at this outpost, where we could be sent to... Then she came. She killed everyone there but me. She shot me in the arm with a tracker when I ran. And she followed me right to the base we had been sent from. They pulled the bullet from me and... and she showed up again. I was abandoned in the medical room when they realized what the bullet was. Then she spoke over the intercom, said that she was hired to hurt us back like we had been hurting people. That terror never leads to peace. She stopped talking and started shooting any that stood against her. Daddy, two hundred White Fang members were there and she... She tore through them like they were paper, not worth true notice. When she ran out of people to kill, it got so terribly quiet. And then it started back up. I don't know how long it lasted but after a while, someone ran in to escape and she shot him in the back of the head. And stared right at me...just how I had seen the old members of White Fang look at the people they were hurting. Like I was nothing. And then she told me to run. To go home and never put on the mask again. So I, I..."

"Hush, Dove, its over now," he said, hugging her and petting her hair.

"I'm so sorry," she cried.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"Yes I do, if I had just listened to you, I never would've been there!"

"Dove...if anyone is to blame here, it is the White Fang. You made a mistake, they knew exactly what they were doing and that it would inspire someone to stop them. The only thing you did wrong was make a bad choice. Go to sleep, I promise things will be better in the morning."

"...Are you going to tell Detective Syllabus?"

She had to wonder that. White Fang was identified as a terrorist group, it was a crime to join or give it aid. So even _if_ the attacker could be arrested, the police might just be told to let her go. "No," he told her, easing some of the tightness in her chest. "There isn't a point anymore. Its over. Just sleep." She nodded and closed her eyes, tomorrow was another day. No more fighting, no more fears.

—oo000oo—

The following morning, Professor Ozpin was raptly watching the news. Last night, someone had made an anomalous phone call to the police to tell them that in the abandoned bunkers on Vale's north side was a White Fang base that was gearing up for a major operation. Taking the warning seriously, the police prepared a raid on the compound with the aid of a few hunters. They needn't bother with the heavies. While the caller told the truth about the base, everyone inside it was dead. Killed within hours of the call. Many were killed by gun fire that left electrical burns, some seemed to have been set on fire at the same time as receiving them, then there were the ones that were cut apart by something strong enough to put claw marks in the stone walls. All told, one hundred, seventeen bodies were found, a further seventy nine were possible, if the blood and piles of human shaped ash were to be believed. The most disturbing was the person nailed to the wall wearing the commander's mask and above him the words 'Examples, not Prisoners' were carved. That wasn't being shown on the news, only that a raid was conducted on the White Fang base, hundreds of weapons and pounds of dust was discovered, documents and maps were obtained, over all a major loss for the terrorist group. Positive spin.

Ozpin wanted to say he expected this but who could possibly expect _this_? Hearing a chime from his scroll, he looked at it and found a message. _Do you want me to stop?_ He glanced over to Glynda but knew his answer.

_No._

Strange to think one word is all it takes to condemn people to death. Made him wonder how Gaige handled killing so many.

—oo000oo—

"Hitting the bottle kinda hard, aren't you, Red," Junior asked from the bar next to the red faced Gaige. She came in last night and hadn't stopped drinking.

"Gonna stop me," she asked, looking to him before scoffing when she saw he wouldn't. "...Hey, Junior, you ever start something, thinking it would be no different than something you've done a hundred times before only it isn't?"

"That what causing this?"

"Hey, shut up," Gaige growled before taking another drink of whiskey. "...Bunch of dumb kids too drunk on hate and anger to know they're the bad guys. I almost miss home."

"Why?"

"Huh, oh, yeah, Pandora has a bit of a bandit problem. Completely fucked up in the head! I don't feel anything about killing this axe wielding psycho screaming about stripping flesh, salting the wounds, and riding bicycles made of meat. Yeah, they say that. Yet a bunch of brats that think they have a raw deal get thrown at me like...I don't know but many weak things, by some evil bastards and..."

"...So...you gonna stop?"

"Fuck no! Whether I like it or not, they are still hurting and killing people!" She scowled but dropped her head to the counter. "Please tell me you have the location of a bounty."

"Not yet but shortly."

"Its been three days," she protested.

"And I am working hard but these are people that are desperate to not be discovered for the same reason you are looking for them."

"Grrr. Fine! But I'm going to drink myself into a stupor and when I wake up, you better have something. Preferably a real asshole that absolutely deserves to die!" Skipping the glass, she grabbed the bottle and started drinking right from it.

"...Good thing that isn't the expensive stuff."

"Even I'm not that musch of an asshole," she groused. Before her head fell to the counter, out like a light.

"...That took long enough. Ladies, if you would be so kind as to help Red to the back room to get some sleep?"

"Sure," the twins said, taking an arm each and pulling her away.

—oo000oo—

Hearing groaning many hours later, Junior looked to the side and found Gaige walking over. From the look of complete misery, she had already worshiped at the porcelain alter. "Hey, Jerry, prepare a Harry Hangover."

"Yes sir," the bartender replied, grabbing several things and mixing them together in a glass.

"Afternoon, Red, sleep well," Junior asked, motioning beside him.

"No but thanks for the bed." She looked up and grimaced at the glass of red...stuff put before her. "What's this?"

"Harry Hangover, ma'am," Jerry told her. "One shot of vodka to ease the stomach, two eggs, tomato juice, half a cup of milk, salt, and water. Taste disgusting but it helps with hangovers."

Gaige dropped her head to the bar but reached for it. "Junior, you're too good to me, if you also have some asshole that needs to die, I'll kiss you and give you a fifty thousand lien tip."

"You're a tad too young for my taste but I may just take you up on that later," he said, widening his scroll, opening a document, and setting it on the counter next to her. "So, he isn't worth much officially but some in certain circles want this man dead real bad. The people the victims worked for will pay a hundred, thirty thousand for him dead." Gaige took a drink and shook her head from the taste but still picked the scroll up to read it. "A man has been raping and killing, hmm, shall we call them workers?"

"Hookers is fine, I'm not exactly sheltered."

"Very well, someone has raped and killed seven hookers across the city over the last three weeks. Someone got a picture of a guy that was seen with three of them so they're certain he's the one. No name, no address, nothing known..."

"Adrian Lore, transient, last seen in Vacuo, has a strong hatred for 'kari', adulteresses and temptresses, has been caught attacking women in 'scandalous' clothing in Mistral. He ran away before some very angry brothers, fathers, and husbands could hang him by his entrails and feed him to grimm. That's really what they were going to do. One girl, six years old, needed surgery to be able to speak again. For wearing shorts."

"...How the hell do you know all that," Junior asked, having seen her set his scroll back down without ever shifting through it to find the information.

"I'm good and let's leave it at that. Go ahead and check if you want, I'm looking for Lore now." She finished off the glass and turned around, appearing to be watching the dance floor but not actually seeing it.

"...Adrian Lore...Vacuo...Mistral... Good lord, this man is scum," Gaige heard him mutter, making her smile. "That's definitely the guy."

"Anything in particular that someone wants done with him before he dies?"

"They'll pay extra if you either bring him to them alive or make a video of you removing his manhood and then killing him. I'll have to submit this information to them so they can confirm it. After all, just anyone can kill some random guy and claim it is the one."

Gaige nodded and said, "Wait ten minutes after I find his location, I don't want anyone else getting this piece of shit first and I'll make them a video they can go to sleep to every night."

Junior glanced to her and began to smile. "Dust, I love working with bounty hunters."

"...Hey Junior, some blond bombshell is heading this way and she is looking right at you."

Instead of being happy like Gaige expected, he groaned and turned around to face her with a grimace. "Hey Blondie. Please say you're not gonna trash my place again."

"Whoa, what now," Gaige said, hangover forgotten at the threat to her new favorite bar stool.

"Hey Junior," the blond said with this wide grin. "Move over shorty, I need to speak with him. Hey, Jerry, mind making me a..." Everyone paused as a red shotgun was shoved into Blondie's stomach.

"...You know, I come to places like this to get away from trouble," Gaige said, standing up and walking forward, forcing Blondie back. "But someone like you, that is what you're always looking for. Well, if that's what you want, you found it, top heavy. Because clearly, we're _both_ packing guns." When she felt she was far enough, Gaige stepped back and placed the Heartbreaker on her back while resting her hand on the Greed. "Oh, and when you call me shorty, you better say Miss Shorty. Or maybe you'd rather be dead?"

"...She's not on your payroll, is she Junior," Blondie asked.

"Nope. Red, meet Yang Xiao Long. She's been coming here for a bit whenever she wants information. Unlike you though, she just threatens me and my employees to get it instead of following the rules. Blondie, meet Gaige Crescent. Treasure hunter, mercenary, and bounty hunter. Four days ago, she tried to put a bullet in the head of a rather wanted felon. Tonight, she planned to go out and do the same to another. She favors swift, merciless justice over the slow, weak kind. She has apparently made my club her hang out and she's also nursing a hangover. Now, Red, Blondie, before the both of you try to redecorate my club with each others' blood, let's all just take a seat and relax." Junior motioned to two stools that placed him in the undesirable position of being in between them.

"...If she behaves, I don't have a problem," Gaige muttered, stepping back but not removing her hand. Moving back far enough, she retook her stool and waited.

"...Yeah, I guess I can wait a minute or two for this." Yang sat down in the other stool, Gaige turning the whole time to keep her in sight. After a moment Gaige pulled the Greed and set it on the counter.

"Jerry, whiskey," Junior ordered.

"Yes, sir... For them or you, sir?"

"Me."

"Double, on the rocks, coming up."

"So, Blondie, what are you looking for?"

"A couple of things," she stated, no humor in her voice anymore. "Rumor has it that the raid on White Fang this morning didn't take any prisoners. I want to know the truth. I've also heard something about someone murdering women."

"You have to be kidding," Junior groaned, even Melanie and Miltiades looked disbelieving. "...No, it is not worth the trouble."

"Oh really," Yang said coyly but froze when she heard a hand being set on the Greed.

Junior was growing paler by the second and when he got his whiskey, he didn't sip it. He just picked it up and set it back down empty. "Melanie, Miltia, could you get the boys to clear out the club. And Blondie, the truth is rather vague on that raid right now. Red, please don't destroy my place."

"That would defeat the purpose of me standing up to Top Heavy." She barely registered the changing camera images to the top right of her sight until it stopped on one and enlarged the picture. "Crap."

"What?"

"I just found Adrian Lore's location," she said, flicking it aside before focusing only on him. "How do you want to play this Junior?"

"I don't want my club destroyed."

"...Because I like you I'll only charge you twenty thousand to do this. Come on, Top Heavy."

"Come with you where," Yang asked.

"You want to know about who is killing women here in Vale, as it so happens I do know who and I just found where he is at. Since you are asking about him, I imagine you want to find him too. Well, I'm not letting someone else get him without me and since the fastest way to get you out of here is to take you with me, that's what I'm going to do."

Yang began to smile, "Aw, thanks, Shorty..." Gaige was up and Greed pointed at her head. "...Miss Shorty."

"Better."

"You know, I'll just call you Red."

"Fine, whatever, now come on." Gaige headed outside, calling back, "If you can't keep up, I'm leaving you behind."

Yang looked after her and said, "She have a problem?"

"Possibly, better hurry though," Junior told her. When finally Yang ran outside, he let out a sigh of relief.

—oo000oo—

Yang got out to see Gaige sitting down on this bike that wasn't there when she entered. Jumping on her own bike, Bumblebee, she looked over to see Gaige pull off her hat and set goggles over her eyes. "So, what's this guy's problem?"

"He's a whore hater.

"...And?"

"No _and_, that's it. He hates women and especially any woman that dresses like a hooker." At this, Gaige pointedly looks to Yang.

"...What?" Gaige just started the engine to her bike and drove off. "Hey, what did you mean by that!?" Starting Bumblebee, she drove after her still shouting about what she meant.

Yang was somewhat surprised that she had to push to keep up with Gaige. Despite the heavy look of the bike, it weaved between traffic and had great go to it. Yang was starting to enjoy the drive until she noticed where they were headed. "Hey, slow down! Stop, STOP!" Gaige glanced back behind her before squeezing the break, stopping in sight of ghetto. "Don't you know what's up there?"

"Yes. My bounty."

"That's not what I meant. Look, I don't hate faunus but even I know that two human girls aren't gonna be welcomed there."

"And that's exactly why no one has caught this asshat. No one observes there, they're afraid to go there, and frankly, they just don't give a shit about it. Now I'm going in there, I'm going to find Lore, and I'm going to twist him into a pretzel. Now either follow or go away." Revving the engine, she took off down the road. After a moment's hesitation, Yang followed.

The difference between this part of the city and the rest became apparent the farther in they drove. Streets less clean, buildings less cared for, and almost everyone that was still out was faunus. Yang couldn't help but notice they stood out. Gaige didn't give a shit. Slowing down only to reconfirm his location, Gaige continued on regardless of the attention they were getting. And she stopped shortly after turning because of a group wearing mask were blocking the road.

"Well, well, well, what have we here," the only one there wearing the full White Fang uniform asked.

"Two lost looking chickadees, as it appears to me," another stated.

"Get lost dipshits," Gaige told them. "...Though not you," she said, pointing to the one in the uniform. "I'm looking for someone and he could only be around here with the aid of White Fang."

"Hah, do you hear this human," one of the other members asked. "Like we're just gonna..."

_**Bang, bang, bang!**_

Three shots fired, three knees blown out. Kicking out the stand for her bike as the rest of them scattered, Gaige walked to the three that had spoken. "Adrian Lore, serial killer, he's hiding out around here. What did he promise the White Fang to be allowed to stay?" When one of them told her just what she should go do with herself, she stomped on his wounded knee. "Last chance." Yang watched in growing horror as Gaige took the Greed and pointed it at their chest and after a moment, fired. She stepped away as the body burned to ash, leaving the mask whole. Pointing the gun at the next person, she said, "What did Lore offer the White Fang?"

"...Fucking bitch, he promised that if we gave him safe haven, he would leave us alone and kill the humans," the uniform wearer stated.

"And what other aid are you providing him?"

"Go and find out."

"Alright." She stepped back to her bike and backed away before shooting him in the head, getting an explosion of lightning that burned the both of them to ash as well. "Let's go."

"...You didn't have to do that," Yang muttered.

"What did you think they were going to do with us if they could, hmm? Slap us on the wrist and tell us to go home? The best you could have hoped for is to be killed outright instead of tortured and raped."

"But you didn't have to kill them!"

"Really?" Gaige pointed the Greed over Yang's shoulder and shot again, shooting off the hand of a person pointing a gun at them. "Go home Blondie, this is dirty work not meant for you." Not waiting, she took off, leaving Yang behind. And she growled when she still followed. "Why are you still here?"

"The best way I can keep you from killing them is to knock them out before you do!"

"...Fine, just don't blame me if you get shot!"

A few minutes later, they came to a three story building. Gaige stopped half a block away and pulled out the Greed. Removing the spent rounds, she reloaded it and snapped it shut. Next she pulled out her Heartbreaker and did a quick check of it. Finally she grabbed her Badaboom and put a magazine in it.

"Holy shit, what is that," Yang demanded.

"Called the Badaboom," Gaige stated. "It fires a missile that launches seven missiles that explode in a burst of acid. I intend to use it as a door opener. If you are going to stop me from killing the people inside, I suggest you get started." She pressed down on the bike side and it unfolded into a sidecar that she set the Badaboom in.

"How do you know that there aren't civilians in there?"

"Because I'm a genius," Gaige stated, looking at her. "Across the street, that stop light, and that business, what do you see?"

"What? I don't know..."

"Cameras. Security cameras to be precise. All this time I have been using those to keep an eye on this building. In the last five minutes, seven White Fang members have ran in. Thirty seven minutes ago, Lore went inside and hasn't come out."

"How do you know!?"

"That would take too long to explain." After shutting down the three cameras, Gaige held up her metal hand, and suddenly digistructed a surveyor, a design she stole from Wilhelm. It flew off and circled the house, transmitting the image to Gaige and Yang's scroll. "Pull out your scroll." Yang did and was further shocked by the image she was seeing. "There is a backdoor, no surprise, already checking for the best angle of it to make sure he hasn't left. Your best bet is to double back to this alley and go through that door. I imagine it is barred but you won't let that stop you, will you?" The camera shook before the image changed to show the roof of the building. Men had gotten on it and tried to shoot down the drone. Instead of shooting back, it merely aimed a laser at the roof top.

"What is that supposed to do," Yang asked, looking to Gaige to see her picking up the Badaboom.

"Guidance laser." A whoosh of air and seven missiles flew into the air and came down on the roof, exploding in a green cloud. "Time to start Blondie." Gaige got off her bike and started for the door, taking her time. Once she was across the street from it, her drone came to her and hovered, putting a laser on door and six of the windows. "Boom." They all exploded and melted the frames that held them. "Good boy, Deathray," she said, patting the drone on the 'head' before it digitized and returned to her arm. Pulling out the Heartbreaker, she walked in. Hearing a survivor yell as he charged her, she shook her head and fired at them. No discipline. You never yell because you give yourself away. Suddenly grabbing a silent member trying to get her from the side, she slammed them into the wall and shoved the barrel of the Heartbreaker into his mouth. "Lore." Nothing more needed to be said, the man frantically pointed down the hall to the stairs. "Which floor?" Three fingers held up. After a moment, she pulled off his mask and stared into the scared eyes of a boy. "If I ever see you among the White Fang again, I will..." She pulled the Heartbreaker around to the side and fired, shooting someone in the head and making them explode in electricity. "I will do things to you that will make you wish I killed you like these stupid fucks. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Do you think I won't?"

"I think you will."

"Get out of my sight." She watched him run away and took a deep breath. It smelled of burning flesh, a smell she had long since gotten used to. While electrical attacks smell of ozone, the Heartbreaker was still a fire weapon. There were no corpses left behind by it, just charred scraps of meat and ash. Turning back to it, game face reapplied, she stepped forward.

—oo000oo—

Yang got inside before Gaige blew in the front of the building. Punching out any that she came across, she counted that the number of White Fang members she met at thirteen. A large number for just an safe house for some killer. What had she stumbled into? Hearing a shotgun spurned her to move faster. These people wouldn't thank her but each she dealt with first would live another day. Knocking out three guards, she opened the door they blocked and found a woman holding a little girl, a human about three or four, a knife to her throat and gag in her mouth. "...Down stairs is a woman that is killing everyone she finds. Do you think having her will save you?"

"Yeah, because you won't let anything happen to this little brat!"

"She's getting out of this. Are you?"

"You think you can intimidate me?

"Personally, I don't think top heavy here could intimidate anything without a dick between their legs," came from behind Yang, getting her to sigh. "Well, well, well, I would like to say I was surprised to find out that the daughter of Sato of Sato Industries was here but then that would imply I didn't think White Fang had her anyway."

"I'm getting out of here!"

"Sure you are." Gaige was leaning against the wall on the direct opposite of the hostage taker.

"I mean it, I'll kill her!"

"And I believe you." Gaige had neither the Greed nor the Heartbreaker out. This was a gold and blue revolver with a stylized _Rex_ on the barrel. She turned around and aimed through the wall. "Let the girl go now and I'll let turn you over to the VPD whole and unharmed."

"Are you fuckin..." _**BANG!**_ The woman trailed off and looked down, already going into shock, at the hand holding the knife being blown off at the wrist. "...M-My h-hand."

"I warned you," Gaige stated, walking around the wall she had shot through and took the girl from them. Pulling the gag off her, Gaige smiled and said, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I want to go home," she said in a weak, scared voice.

"And I want to take you home. Blondie," she said in a kind voice. "Would you be so kind as to restrain this woman. We'll leave her and the others for the VPD to collect."

"You shot off her hand," Yang muttered.

"Hands are what separate people from beast. A person that can only hurt with their hands doesn't deserve them. Hey, if you want to keep your other hand, tell Miss Top Heavy here just what you did with the other hostages you have taken," she said, looking down at the fallen White Fang member. When she didn't, Gaige pointed the Rex at her.

"...We give them to Lore. He...plays with and kills them once we get the ransom." The horrified look on Yang's face was not what Gaige truly wanted to see.

"The services Lore provides to keep the White Fang from killing him," Gaige summed up. "They provide him a safe haven, he provides a special set of skills." You wouldn't be able to tell from her face that she was cursing herself for letting that one get away. Every last one of these fucks deserve to be punished.

"...I think I'm going to be sick," Yang muttered.

"Be sick later. I want this woman to live a very long life so you need to restrain her and stop the bleeding. The shock won't stave it off for long."

"...Okay." Yang knelt down and took the restraints that were on the girl and pulled them tight around the arm. "What about Lore?"

"Dealt with."

"Dead?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to. VPD is already on their way, they will be here in ten to twenty minutes so I suggest you leave unless you want to explain your part in this. I am a registered bounty hunter, are you?"

"No, just a Huntress in training."

"Then you better run. Get back on your bike, get several blocks over bat out of hell fast, and then just cruise, slow, calm driving. Cops won't even look at you as they pass."

"I..."

"Go. You can deal with this among friends and loved ones. Now is not the time to wrestle with how evil the world can be."

"...No wonder you are so jaded."

Yang finished restraining the woman and ran out while Gaige just walked out, still holding the girl. "So, what's your name?"

"Marigold."

"Gaige. Gaige Crescent. As in crescent wrench."

"...What color is Gaige?"

"Hehehe, well, I would say steel grey."

"Oh. What's that smell?"

"They burnt dinner."

"Oh." Marigold started to look away.

"Hey, maybe you can tell me something. I've always wonder how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. Can you help me figure that out?" That stopped her from looking away.

"I'll try."

"You know, you're very calm about all this."

"I'm tired. There was this man, he really scared me with how he looked at me. He's not going to find me, will he?"

"No. That man will never hurt anyone again. Now, about that woodchuck."

"Okay. What's a woodchuck?"

—oo000oo—

Ozpin found himself once again watching the news. "We're live on location here in Vale at the site of another White Fang outpost that has been taken apart. Sergeant Wilde, can you please explain to our viewers just what this location was to the White Fang?"

"Yes, Ms. Judith. This location was the White Fang's hostage center. They would kidnap individuals, usually the children of the influential or powerful, and keep them here. Once the ransom was paid...they would kill the hostage. I cannot say yet whose choice this was and why."

"I understand that a hostage was here and they were rescued?"

"Yes, there was, though we cannot release yet the identities of whom and..."

"Marigold!"

"Daddy!" Officer Wilde turned to look as a father crossed the police line to take his daughter in his arms.

"...Right, even still, we cannot release their identities."

"Fair enough. What about the rumors that this was done by a Huntress?"

"A...huntress was involved yes. She would prefer to remain anonymous"

"Thank you for your time, Sergeant. This is Judith Car... Wait, I think I see the Huntress now. Ma'am! Can we have a word please!?" They ran over to Gaige as she pulled her hood on and got on her bike. "Miss, can you tell us what happened inside?"

"...No comment."

"Nothing? You saved a little girl's life!"

"And how many other little girls did White Fang kill before someone stopped them, hmm? Again, no comment." Popping the clutch, Gaige took off.

"...Well, I think that is the right question to ask, isn't it," Judith said, turning back to the camera. "In this reporter's opinion, there could be no clearer sign that the White Fang is nothing but evil in it's purest form. Judith Carrots, signing off."

Ozpin sighed and took another drink of his tea. "...Glynda, isn't there a phrase about deep rabbit holes?"

"Shall I schedule that interview with Miss Belladonna now?"

"I think we may have to, don't we?"

—oo000oo—

"No need to glare at me," Gaige said, walking around a tank of water as she checked on the cameras and three monitors. "Someone was eventually going to catch you." She heard a muffled growl. "Now, now, none of that. Better save your breath because you are going to need it." More grunting. "No, of course I don't intend to drown you. The water only goes to your neck after all. Now smile, your adoring fans await." Gaige moved by the tank and faced the monitors as they changed to show three shadowed individuals. "Hello. You three don't need to know who I am, nor I whom you are. You only need to know this man, Adrian Lore. As you already know, Adrian Lore here as been killing prostitutes in the city. Say hello, Adrian." She reached over and pulled down his gag.

"You dumb bitch! They were just whores!"

"_And that is where you made the mistake. Even whores have those that care about them,"_ came from the left monitor.

"_Well, you have us here and we promised a lot of money if he suffers. How do you intend to do it?"_

Gaige smiled at them and motioned to the equipment set over the tank. "I am a woman of science, electricity, and on occasion, acid. In this instance, hydrochloric acid. It is created by dissolving hydrogen chlorine in water. Such as what is inside this container and the water in this tank. This machine will slowly mix the two together. Slowly. It will take roughly six hours before the acids will dissolve enough of his body to kill him. Five minutes after he dies, this facility will detonate, destroying all evidence." As she spoke, Lore started breathing harder and harder and by the end of it, he was begging her not to do this. "I have sent control of the tank to you three. Once all of you agree, the machine will start. Also should all of you agree, you can speed it up for a time or you can hit an override to kill him immediately, well almost immediately. I leave this to you. Please have the money sent to the account I am sending you." She started away but paused when the machine activated. "Goodbye Lore. Oh, and you're currently outside of Vale so be careful of how you scream." Which he started to do even before Gaige slammed the door shut.

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: Something I forgot to mention, this Gaige is based on my own build for Gaige on Borderlands 2. I love the Grog Nozel, summon Deathtrap and have that out, I have infinite health! And having Chain Lightning while using the Transformer is just overkill. On the matter of equipment though, Crit, why do you such so much!? Drop chance when reloading, really!? That's why I turned Bad Touch from fire to Lightning! And turning Greed into a lightning weapon, I started this before the Pre-Sequal came out so there was no Cyber-Eagle yet.

See you Space Cowboy.


	3. Thrilling heroics

_**Or 'Vault Hunters are Scary.'**_

—oo000oo—

The day before the start of the school year, Blake Belladonna found herself in the office of Headmaster Ozpin. Oh how she wanted to say it was a coincidence but she knew it wasn't. White Fang discovered kidnapping and killing children, to say the least it shook what people thought of it. And humans like Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company was using this as the sign that the White Fang must be destroyed. And now, here she was, a former member of the White Fang, standing in front of arguably the most powerful person in Vale, possibly the world.

"Miss Belladonna, please take a seat," Ozpin said to her, a kind tone of voice not quite hiding the command it carried.

"Yes, Headmaster Ozpin. ...May I ask why I am here?"

"Of course you may. I might even answer you," he said humorously. "Actually, the reason you are here is because a look into your past revealed some things. Things that previously I was fine with ignoring but now I felt needed to be addressed."

"I suppose it was too much to hope you couldn't read my handwriting or something. Then shall we just skip to the main question sir?"

"Of course. Tell me about the White Fang."

"...To start with, sir, I joined back when my father headed the organization. It was different back then. My father left it and for a time things were the same. When it changed, it was with small things. Then more and more. I can't even think when precisely White Fang became...this. But even when I left no one advocated...that." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"So you knew nothing about this?"

"I left because those close to me began to disregard the lives of others." Blake opened her mouth but closed it again and looked down. "...I can't even state enough how much this disgust me. And likely every other faunus in the world." Sighing, shame heavy on her shoulders, she said, "Are you going to tell me I'm not welcome in your school?"

"I will review it carefully. Miss Belladonna, do you think what was happening in that building was known by the leaders of White Fang?"

"...At least someone knew."

"Do you think they approved of it?"

"...More than likely."

"Do you know who the leader is?"

"...No...but I have a suspicion."

"Tell me."

"...My best friend growing up. Adam Taurus. I know he leads the White Fang in this region. Maybe all regions."

"Describe him." Blake grabbed her scroll and sent them a picture of the two together. Blake in his arms. "...I see. Thank you for your assistance in this matter, Miss Belladonna, I understand it could not have been easy. I look forward to seeing you in school tomorrow." Blake nodded and left his office, not at all feeling better about this.

—oo000oo—

Gaige held up her hand and twisted it this way and that before resting it on the table and taking her cleaning tools to it once more. She could feel something in one of the gears. Seeing a call come in, she activated it and said, "Good morning, Gaige speaking."

"Yes, Miss Crescent, my name is Argent Sato," she smiled, argentate another word for silver. "I didn't thank you properly yesterday and I would..."

"Mister Sato, I'm going to have to stop you right there," Gaige interrupted. "No matter what happened, I didn't go there because of your daughter. I had actually tracked a killer to that building. Now, I am grateful that I got there in time to save her and you did thank me last night."

"Even so, for what you did it isn't enough."

"Then in that case sir, I hope you instead pay it forward."

"Pay it forward? But you should be rewarded for your actions!"

"...Sir, can I be candid with you?"

"Of course."

"I am no hero, I just went there looking to feel better by killing some monsters that needed to die. And while I found that, I found a scared little girl and shattered the innocence of another. A huntress in training helped me and she had to see that not all monsters are grimm. So please, just pay it forward to...three random people that just need help. Maybe ask them to do the same."

"...If that is what you would like, Miss Crescent, I shall. But still though, thank you. If you ever need a favor, do not hesitate to call and ask me."

"I will keep that in mind. Have a good day." Hanging up on the call, she grabbed her tweezers and reached into her hand to pull out a tiny piece of drywall. Using an air brush, she passed it through the parts and reapplied the CLP, cleaner-lubricant-protectant. Looking her arm over, she considered once again if she should cover it in a synthetic-organic sheath. Shaking her head and putting it from her mind, she picked up her Greed and started running a brush through the barrel. Getting another call, she rolled her eyes and answered it. "Gaige speaking."

"Yes, Miss Gaige, my name is Reese Greenfield, I work for VNS, Vale News Source, and I was hoping for an interview."

Gaige sighed and said, "As I have been telling all the reporters calling me, you have the wrong girl. I am not a huntress nor that huntress. Bye." She hung up. And no sooner did she hang up did someone else start calling her. "...Hello, you have reached the Life Model Decoy of Gaige Crescent."

"Well, in that case can you point me in the direction of Gaige Crescent the original," Headmaster Ozpin asked.

"Ah, the wonderful wizard of Oz. Enjoying my work?"

"Yes, well you did some very good work there that night. How did you find that?"

"I fell ass backwards into it, truth be told. I was hunting a serial killer, turns out he was being employed by the White Fang to clean up after them. They kidnap human children, demand a ransom, and turn the children over to a human killer to dispose of. So that White Fang keeps their image clean. Things get too hot, they cut the line and leave the killer to take all the heat. They should've kept a tighter leash on him and his side activities."

"Well, accident or not, you might want to stay out of sight for a time. If White Fang puts together that you are responsible for the base and this, they will quite certainly be after you."

"Hmm. Don't suppose you happen to know how every news outlet and their dog somehow got a hold of my number do you?"

"No but I'll look into it.

"Well, I'm going to change number soon so I'll call you once I got it. Gaige out."

Putting down the Greed, she picked up the Heartbreaker and began taking it apart. She got about half way through cleaning it before she received another call. "...For the last time, I am not the huntress from the hostage situation!"

"Jacque Schnee, and I think you are her."

"...I'm hanging up now."

"I would very much like it if you didn't do that," the mustached man said. "Believe me, things will be easier just to talk to me."

"No."

"Are you sure, I can hire an almost literal army of people to bother you just so we can have a chance to-" _**Click.**_

"Damn telemarketers," Gaige muttered only to arch her eyebrow to see him calling her again. "...Hello?"

"Did you just hang up on me," Jacque Schnee demanded.

"Why Mr. Schnee, I'm shocked you would think of such a thing." _**Click. ...Brrrrinnnng. **_"...Yes?"

"Do you have any idea-" _**Click. ...Brrrrinnnng.**_

"...Yellow?"

"If you hang up one more-" _**Click. ...Brrrrinnnng. **_Gaige just stared at the icon as it rang before finally tapping it.

"Hello, you have reached Gaige Crescent. I can't come to the phone because I'm busy being a kickass woman of science and badassery. Please leave a message after the beep and I will get back to you when I feel like it. ...Beep." Gaige could hear teeth grinding on the other side of the phone.

"Do you know who I am?"

"I know precisely who you are," Gaige stated. "And to me, that means precisely dick."

"Be careful of what you say, little girl, I can make your life very difficult. The least of which limit your access to dust."

"Oh no, what a nightmare," Gaige mocked. "You are almost solely the reason White Fang is as powerful as it is. You even try to make my life difficult, I will make yours a nightmare. And believe me, I am capable of true horrors. So forget getting some kind of interview with me beside you for brownie points with the anti-White Fang public. Now, I'm hanging up and if you call me again, I will ruin you." _**Click. **_Gaige waited a moment before going back to cleaning her weapons.

_**Knock, knock, knock.**_

Gaige sighed but muttered, "At least it isn't a call. Enter."

Junior walked in holding a bag of hot food, a tray of coffee, and a smile on his face. "Morning, didn't see you come in last night. Watching the news I can guess why. Food?"

"Please. Coco mix in the coffee?"

"Of course."

"Thank you," she said, taking it and smelling it. "So, what has you in such a good mood?"

"I just received my commission. They were suitably impressed with what you set up."

"Oh, how much?"

"Enough to make some much needed renovations on the club and have a over ten grand left." His smile was magnanimous.

"Hmm...Gonna need me out for a time?"

"Yeah, a few days."

"Got a recommendation on a stool I can warm while I do?"

"I can hook you up with a place. The owner of the Starlight Tavern owes me a favor. I'll call him."

Gaige nodded while taking a bite from her croissant but sighed when another call reached her. "...Hello?"

"_**Do you have any idea who you are fucking with,"**_ a garbled voice demanded.

Gaige frowned and motioned Junior for his scroll. Setting it on the table and connecting the call to it so he could hear, she pressed a finger over her lips for him to be quiet. "Who is this?"

"_**The person that is going to kill you," **_came out of the scroll.

"Ah, a White Fang grunt," Gaige stated, already running the back-trace. "Do you even know who I am?"

"_**You're that huntress that attacked our operation last night."**_

"Then no, you don't know. Let me make this clear to you, you insignifi-cunt, I will fuck you up. This isn't an idle threat, _Jason Azure_, I will fuck you up, your mother, Lesley Azure, at two-two-one-B Bakersfield, your cute little bunny girlfriend, Jessica Rabbit, currently working her shift at a diner, and anyone else in your life. If so much as a picture falls from my wall, you won't be able to hide from me. Not at that coffee shop across the street from you, not at that bar to your left, nor the weapons shop to your right. Do you understand me, you fucking little worm!? I will rip your ass open wide enough to drive through, leaving you alive just long enough to watch everyone important to you suffer!"

Junior watched her with wide eyes and growing shock. He looked to his scroll and back up to her, especially when he heard, "I'm...sorry for disturbing you, ma'am, please forgive me." He was no longer using whatever it was that distorted his voice.

"I'm watching you, so you better run home to your mother." Gaige waited a moment before shouting, "THAT IS NOT THE WAY TO YOUR MOTHER'S HOUSE!"

"Yes ma'am!" When she was satisfied, she hung up.

"...You are scary," Junior stated. "Would you really do all that?"

"What, oh no. Idle threats but he doesn't need to know that."

"How do you do that?"

"That, Junior, is a secret. Just know that I am a fucking genius."

"I have long since gathered that..."

Gaige began to smile, already seeing the gears turn in his head. "You're wondering why I do this if I'm so smart?"

"Well, yes."

"Because the money is good, the scenery changes and I get to work with robots, lasers, and explosions. So, as we were saying, Starlight Tavern?"

"Uh, yeah. Uh, its a tavern so you just sitting around and enjoying yourself shouldn't cause a problem. Leon also shouldn't have trouble housing you for a few days."

"Leon, is that the owner," Gaige asked, already doing a search.

"Yeah, Leonardo. Good guy, made a bad choice when he was younger, you'll see the result of it there."

"Hmm. When are you going to do it?"

"Well, depending on Leon, I can get it started today or tomorrow."

Gaige nodded and began putting the Heartbreaker back together and storing it away. Followed by the rest of her weapons. Taking her breakfast, she said, "I think I'll go introduce myself then."

"Need directions...No, after all, you're a fucking genius."

"Damn right," Gaige replied. "That and I also searched for it on the net." Getting up, she walked out the the room and club. "Good croissanwich." Not really feeling in a hurry, she started walking while also hacking into the system to redirect all calls from this planet to the scroll of one of the dead White Fang members. Then she began the process of changing her local number to an unused one. She was done in ten minutes. Feeling a bit bored, she hacked into Jason's scroll and began listening in. His mother was yelling at him.

"_...But of all of the dumb things you did, you decided to antagonize a killer!? What is wrong with you!?"_

That made Gaige smile, especially as she contemplated joining in of the conversation. Eventually deciding against it, she merely sent a message. _'Now that you have received a tongue lashing for 'antagonizing a killer', you are going to quit White Fang. Remember, I am watching.'_ Satisfied with Jason, she busied herself with other things from around the net. Independent searches for bounties, likely places for the Vault, more safe houses from White Fang, sending her new number to Ozpin, things like that.

She could see the tavern a few blocks away when she received a call, and not from Ozpin. "Hello?"

"Yes, Miss Crescent, this is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Ah, hello ma'am, do you have the address for that tailor?" She could hear leather straining on the other side of the phone. "I apologize, I'm sure you will just text me the address. If I was to guess, this is about other business."

"You are correct. I'm sending you a data-packet with all that we know about the head of the White Fang in this region. ...His name is Adam Taurus." Gaige looked it over and saw a picture of a redhead with horns and a black suit. "Uses a katana and shotgun sheath that can shoot the blade out for extra force on the draw. His semblance is that he takes the force of attacks on him and redirects it all back in one blow. Usually in a draw of the sword from the scabbard."

"It's called Battōjutsu, draw and slice techniques... I wasn't always into robots and guns," she defended herself when she saw the look on Glynda's face. "And a good friend of mine I am fairly certain is a cyborg ninja uses it. Um, that's assuming he isn't just a robot."

"...As much I as would like to ask questions about that, shall we continue on?"

"Right. Adam Taurus, huh? Want me to break him, bring him in, or just make him disappear?"

"...We shall leave that to your judgement," Goodwitch replied before ending the call.

"Hmm, then I think I'll make another example," Gaige muttered, walking into the Starlight Tavern. And there behind the bar was Leon, looking just like his picture, except that he walked with a cane.

"Hello. The lunch special today is sea-food curry with cheesy pita bread."

"Sounds good," Gaige stated, "but I just had breakfast. I'm Gaige Crescent, did Junior mention I was coming by?"

"Ah, yeah, he just called a few minutes ago. Nice to meet you. So, you're looking for a place to crash?"

"Yeah, something like that. I usually hang out at this stool in Junior's club when I'm not working. Something that I likely will be soon. But until then, a place I can call my temporary HQ would be nice."

"Hmm. Well, so long as you don't mind a lumpy bed in a cramped room, I got a place."

"Good to know," she said as she walked to the bar and sat on a stool. "Ooh, nice, I could get used to this. Real leather seats."

"There are several good things I like about this old tavern," Leon said with a smile. Before hearing shouts that changed it to a grimace. "And then there is that." Hearing it coming from outside, Gaige stood up and headed to a window. "Anti-faunus animals. Been worse than normal but that guy there, in the jacket with a skull on the back, he's been at this for years." Gaige saw him, leading a pack of deadbeats to attack a young boy with a fox tail. "Makes you want to do something, doesn't it. And I don't mean join them."

"...Yeah."

"Heh, I've been there before. Three years ago, I was standing right where you are, except it was a little girl."

"What did you do?"

Leon tapped his cane on the floor and said, "I went out there. Faunus kidnapping and killing human children? So what, I see the same thing in reverse all the time. The world is going to shit and the Grimm don't even have to do anything to help it along. And the thing is, if the almighty struck those savages down today, they would be replaced by tomorrow." Gaige glanced to him and back outside before heading to the counter and setting a Lien card on the counter.

"Whiskey, the whole bottle. And a lighter."

—oo000oo—

"Animals like you should be put down," Gaige heard the lead prick shout as she headed to them, holding the bottle in her metal hand by the neck. A strong, thick bottle of the cheap stuff.

"Nine of them," she muttered, coming behind the first and swinging hard, the bottle hitting him on the back of the head, behind the left ear. From the blood that shot out where it hit, he was done. "Eight." She swung back left, nearly taking off the jaw. Bleeding out. "Seven." Bottle up, she brought it down on the head of the third. Concussion, brain hemorrhage, might survive. "Six," she stated while stomping on the back of his neck where he fell, finishing it. Thrusting forward with the bottle, she slammed it right into the forth guy's face, breaking his nose. As he fell back, the guy behind him pulled a knife and stabbed at her. Catching the hand with her flesh hand, she slammed the bottle into his elbow, breaking it. Feeling something hit her from behind, she forced the hand back, stabbing Broken Nose in the neck and tearing down. "Five." Bottle to the temple, breaking the skull. "Four." The next guy pulled a pistol instead and aimed it at her. Grabbing the arm and spinning, she aimed it at the next and forced him to shoot. The bullet entered his eye. "Three." The gun was forced up, back, and pointed at the owner's head. _**Bang. **_"Two." She tossed the bottle to her flesh hand while dropping the body. Catching the last attacker by the face, Gaige pulled him up and slammed him down on the sidewalk, splitting his skull. "One." Standing up straight, she found herself staring at the leader of this, over ten feet away. He probably thought he was safe there. Cute.

"Fucking bitch!" He pulled a gun and started shooting at her as she walked forward. As he emptied the magazine, she slammed the bottle against his arm, snapping it in half. Even as he cried in pain, she stomped on his left leg, breaking it and making him fall back. Then she did it again on his right. "H-Help! HELP! Fuck you, you animal loving bitch!"

"...Justice is performed by those who don't care, so they can be fair and impartial," Gaige stated.

"What," he demanded.

"Those that deal out vengeance though, usually less so," she stated, holding the bottle over him and pouring it out. He tossed his head side to side a bit before hearing the bottle hit the road. Looking up, he froze when she flipped open a lighter and lit it. "Here, justice would be to let you live the rest of your pathetic life with those broken limbs." She set the lighter down a few feet from him, just at the edge of the alcohol, still burning, and turned around. "You can guess what vengeance will be." As she walked away, she saw the boy from earlier staring at her. "You should run home and get those cuts cleaned up."

"But...what about him?"

"Someone owes him," Gaige stated. "So we'll let them handle it. Come on, I'll walk you there."

She stared at him a moment before he said, "Oh, it's this way!" They were just turning onto another road when the screams came and were quickly silenced.

—oo000oo—

"So this is it," Gaige asked, looking to an apartment complex.

"Yeah," he replied, heading to the door but paused when Gaige didn't follow. "You're not coming in?"

"No. I'm not good with thanks. Take care kiddo, and stay safe."

"Yeah, bye, um, wait, I don't know your name," he called as Gaige was already walking away. She just raised her arm to wave back to him and kept walking.

"...Nick, what happened to you?" The boy turned around and saw his mother standing at the door.

"Mom, you won't believe what just happened! Those faunus haters tried to attack me when this girl just showed up and started hitting them! There was nine of them but it didn't matter to her, she was just like _wham, crack, pow!_"

"Are you hurt bad," she asked, kneeling down to look at a split lip of his.

"I'll be fine, um, those guys won't be," he muttered.

—oo000oo—

While walking, Gaige had been checking over the cameras of the area to make sure everything that was recorded was deleted. By the time she returned to the tavern, Police had cordoned off part of the road and were preparing to remove the bodies. Ignoring it, she walked back inside and went to the counter where Leon was once more, polishing a glass. Completely nonchalant. "Wonder what happened outside," she said to him, tapping on the menu for the lunch special.

"Well, it would appear that a gang of heartless thugs were all killed. One was even set on fire ."

"Hmm. Ouch."

"Yeah, but only after having an arm and both legs broken."

"Guess someone didn't like him." As a plate was set before her, Gaige smiled and asked, "So, think I could stick around for a few days when I'm not working?"

"...I suppose. I think I'll like having you around, Miss Crescent." She nodded and finished her meal before standing and heading to the door. "Not sticking around today?"

"Nah, I have work to do. See you tonight or tomorrow though." Walking away from the scene, Gaige eventually digistructed her bike and drove off. Finally coming to the industrial sector, she walked up to what appeared to some strange control box. Pressing her hand to the display that appeared, she scrolled through it and activated her choice, disappearing. A Fast-Travel Station. She had spent a month setting some up in every major city and town. And one on this rather abandoned rig out in the ocean. As soon as she appeared on it, she pulled Bad Touch and started shooting some young Nevermoore grimm. These were small fry compared to the mother that she killed when she first found it. An Alpha at least three hundred years old. She was smart, fast, and even to her, dangerous. That was a fun fight.

When no more came to her, she went over to something big covered in canvas and pulled the tarp off. It was her spaceship. It was white with blue highlights, forward swept wings, overall jet shaped appearance, with two missile pods on the roof and twin vulcan cannons on the underside. It was a Kestral class jumpship, an EX-21 to be precise. Next to Deathtrap, this was her baby.

Going to the cargo door, she pressed her hand to the scanner to open it and went inside. Going to the ship's computer, she sat down and began typing away. _**Planetary mapping at fifty three percent. Seven surveyors lost to local wildlife.**_That made Gaige frown but they were digistruct so it mattered little. _**Underwater oceanic mapping at seventeen percent.**_ On schedule. _**Station structural integrity raised to seventy seven percent. Reactor installed and ignited.**_ Good, now she could get some turrets installed here. So long as her..._** Workshop installation complete. Digistruct tower complete. Activate? **_Hell yeah! Typing away, several stolen digistruct schematics activated and began forming robots. Loaders to be precise, the A.I. changed to recognize her as their master. While her ship could maintain several of the suveyors for maintenance and scouting, having a dedicated tower here would reduce the load and difficulty while extending the numbers and range to even outside the planet.

Setting it up to install several DAHL turrets around the rig, she finally checked to see if anyone had come this way. Again, no. They rather avoided it like the plague. Probably the sea serpent grimm her sensors keeps picking up swimming around the station. The one the size of Terramorphous.

Stepping out of her ship and going to the command center of the Rig, she almost felt like she stepped onto the Hyperion Station. Advance computers, holo-table map display, control station for her fast travel network, she grinned stupidly every time she walked in at all the tech. Activating the music, she smiled. _Press a button to begin. All my life, __Mi ever have mi gun so mi haffi move sharp like mi knife! All my life..._

Stretching her arms, she sat down on a console and began going over the maps. On another window, she opened a search to check through the CCT for any records of the Vault symbol. She was moving back to the maps when an alert came through. Someone was trying to bypass her securities. But why? Going back to the window, she looked the data over. It would appear someone noticed her looking for the vault symbol and was trying to figure out who and where she was. They kept hitting her firewall but were trying to get in regardless. Fair is fair though, they were being subtle, trying to get in without alerting anyone but when your firewall is an AI, not a lot is missed. But this brought into question why and the answer is simple. In all likely hood, someone discovered the symbol and the power associated with it and were doing their best to keep it hidden from the public. So that meant the governments, the Councils. Which one though?

While she wanted to follow back the trace, she frowned as she figured they might notice her if they did in fact have vault related technology and terminate the connection. "Suggestions?"

_Setting up a dummy computer for them to 'hack' into may keep them busy enough to decide to risk it._

"Nice, start setting it up, I'll create the dummy server." Opening the map, she checked it over on where she thought it would be best to make them believe she was at and smiled when she looked at the continent with the least amount of data regarding, the one that looked like the Warrior. "Perfect." Typing away, she set it up and waited for AI to finish the dummy. "Ready?"

_Ready, on your command, ma'am._

"Don't make it too easy for them, but let them in it. ...Now reverse the hack." She waited a moment and... "Atlas huh? That makes sense. What other secrets do you have? Well, why don't we just take a peak at who's there." She began hacking into the facilities security systems.

_They've noticed you ma'am._

"...But they aren't cutting the connection. Noobs." Eventually, she located the building and even the room they were in. Activated the camera, she smiled as she saw Atlas's own General Ironwood commanding a room full of techies.

"_Where are they," _he demanded.

"_Sir, we're trying, but we're being blocked at every turn. Even what little we have found isn't easy."_

"_What about them hacking us?"_

"_They are plowing through everything we have, sir. I can't stop them, they're just too fast! We need to cut the connection or they'll be able to take control of the Knight System in a few minutes at most."_

"Ah, poor guys, might as well let they have it." A few clicks and...

"_Sir, this is impossible, the trace is putting them on the Draco continent,"_ one techie stated.

What happened was not what Gaige expected. Ironwood shouted, _"CUT THE CONNECTION NOW! ALL OUTWARDS COMMU..." _The screen went black.

"Oh-kay, that was interesting. So...Atlas found traces of the vault and became the most advance country in the world. Yet one look at someone possibly being from a deserted continent and the head of it's military panics. That is very interesting." She looks to the map again, specifically Draco, before heading to the console that controls the robots. Ten surveyors went to that place, three were active. So all seven that she has lost were destroyed there. Dismissing the three remaining drones, she began calling forth the more heavily armed and armored versions before sending them out by the dozens. Something was clearly happening there and she wanted to know what.

—oo000oo—

Ozpin was about to go give a speech to the first years when his scroll received a call from Ironwood. "James, I'm about to... Is something wrong?"

"Yes, Ozpin, there is. The monitoring station found someone looking for a symbol on the CCT, a very particular symbol that no one is supposed to know about, and tried to determine who it is. They were stopped immediately." That made Ozpin frown. No one has ever stopped the monitors, much less so quickly. "When we were finally able to get inside their computer, it was because they let us in, to keep us busy so they could return the favor. I'm being told that they moved impossibly fast through our blocks, outright overriding or going through them. They were going to have full control of the system, Ozpin. Then I found out where they're located. Draco."

"That's...different."

"To put it lightly. She has never done something like this before, at least, that we've noticed. Ozpin, if you haven't already, completely disconnect your tower from outside connection. Nothing we have at this time can stop her."

"...I might know someone that can help bolster your defenses, she incredibly good at..."

"Ozpin?"

"...Did this hacker go for the cameras?"

"Yes, they were able to look right at me."

"James, I have to check something. I'll call you if I discover anything important." Ozpin put his scroll away and stood there a moment before hitting the end of his cane hard against the floor. _'An impossibly intelligent young woman with all the skills I need with no history just shows up, and starts fighting with her agents, and I invite her right in.' _Schooling his face, he walked up to Glynda and said, "When you are done here, try to locate Gaige Crescent, do whatever is necessary so long as she doesn't discover you are looking."

"Yes sir." Taking that as her que, Goodwitch walked out on the stage and stood at the podium.

—oo000oo—

"After leaving the club, she begins walking to the Starlight Tavern. Before she gets there, all cameras lose their feed. When next we see her, she is walking a faunus child back home. It is of note that in the center of this lost recordings, a gang of anti-faunus humans are attacked and killed, one by being set on fire. Before the feed was lost, they were chasing the child Gaige was escorting. She gets him home and heads back to the Starlight Tavern, goes in and orders a meal, not even looking at the crime scene right across the street," Professor Goodwitch stated. "Of the victims, there are several that were killed with blunt force trauma, in the shape of a bottle matching the liquid used to kill the leader. Many also have broken bones. Two were shot with their own handgun, no prints but their own. One was driven face first into the sidewalk and crushed his skull. The leader had a sidearm, magazine empty, casings found but no bullets or holes, and three of his limbs were broken, completely snapped, one breaking skin. He was doused in alchohol and then set fire, alive." Glynda crossed her arms and said, "She did it. It was definitely done by a cyborg, which are not unique, but she was right there."

"We can't prove that," Ozpin stated. "What else did you discover?"

"After entering the tavern, she stayed there long enough to eat before leaving. She walked into an alley we don't have footage of and drove out on her bike. She went to the industrial sector and disappears. She goes driving down this road out of camera view, but doesn't come back into view of this camera. Records indicate that there is nothing there."

"And what did you find there?"

"This." She raised up a hologram of a box of some kind. "No records of what it is, no power connections to or from. Just placed there among the other boxes and no one noticed. Other than that, nothing, not even a sewer drain or a pot hole. She used this one little blind spot to somehow vanish completely."

"Is it being watched?"

"Yes. I placed a closed circuit camera there to have it watched, it'll only transmit a closed burst data-stream every half hour but no one will be hacking it. I also began reviewing our records of her and found something I missed." She brought up a picture of Gaige looking to the side. "Do you see it?"

"...Nothing." It zoomed in on her. "Still nothing." The picture zoomed in until the only thing that could be seen but her belt buckle. "...Shit." He couldn't remember the last time he saw something that made him curse like this did.

"How is it that the most secret symbol in all of Remnant is the belt buckle of a teenager? Its also on her shoes!"

"...Do you think its her, the one that attacked Autumn?"

"I don't know. That would certain explain how one girl attacked and killed two hundred members of White Fang but it was all gun shot wounds, no sword or arrow. And while the attacker wasn't a cyborg, _she_ doesn't tolerate failure very well so her arm might well have been the price of it."

"...Or she is one of the other maidens," Ozpin muttered. "I need you to check on their status."

"If we can find them."

Ozpin frowned and looked back to the picture of Gaige, wondering once again just who she was. "Keep watch on her, have her followed by Qrow if you have to. And send a picture of her to him, see if he recognizes her." Glynda nodded and went to carry his orders out.

—oo000oo—

Gaige was had just finished up with her searches and was looking through several threads when she came across a request for help. As Gaige was supposed to be in Vale and not halfway across the world, she was tempted to let the hunters handle it until she saw the word 'bandits'. Before she even knew it, she was flying across the ocean to the fringes of Mistral. Barely even landing before driving off on her bike, her ship flew into the air, far above where anyone could see it.

Driving through the forest, Gaige was intent on getting there before the bandits. Seeing something red flash to her left, she came to a stop and looked at where it was. She stayed there a moment, watching, until she saw it again. Eyes almost like a grimm stared back at her. Almost, that was definitely a human. "...You aren't getting this village," she growled to them. Hearing the snap of a twig behind her, she pulled the Greed while turning. Taking aim at where it came from, she waited.

"...Go home, little huntress," the one in the mask called out. "If you go to that village, you'll just die."

"You would just love me to, wouldn't you?"

"The weak die. The strong live. Those are the rules by which the world works."

"And where do we fall in this little relationship."

"You're surrounded. The only reason we're even talking is because I recognize a killer when I see one. Killing you will cost the lives of many."

"That's the point," Gaige replied, her metal arm going down to grip her grenade mod. "I will die before I let you have that village. Or preferably, kill you all first." She wasn't wrong though, Gaige was surrounded and they were hiding well within the trees. Gaige almost wanted to see them go against Zer0.

"So be..." Gaige's arm came up and lightning shot from it, hitting just to the left of the masked woman, striking one of her bandits. The only reason it didn't hit her as well was because it jumped to another. It hit seven of them before coming back to the woman but she opened a portal and dove into it. Appearing over Gaige, she came down with her blade set to impale her but Gaige was already driving down the path, flipping them off. "Alright, if that's how you want it," Raven Branwen growled.

—oo000oo—

Numbers are a huge advantage but it isn't the only one. Where you fight is just as important. So Gaige decided not to fight them where they chose but where she will. And a village with narrow points of view and a wall to keep them all trapped sounded perfect. And she had a few things for them to play with when they got there.

Coming to a clearing and there, a hundred meters away, Gaige saw the wall of the village, Shion. Stopping outside the gates, she raised her hands and called to the guards, "Hello there."

"State your business," one demanded, pointing a rifle at her head.

"I'm a bounty hunter, word has it that you are having a touch of trouble with some bandits so I came to offer my services."

"...Get the chief," he told another she couldn't see. "You came awful fast, we sent word out just an hour ago."

"Let's say I have a problem with bandits and leave it at that," Gaige replied. "I'll make it all clear to your chief once he gets here." Turning the bike, she cut the engine and got off before just sitting on it, facing the forest and back to the wall. She did that for two reasons, the most important was to keep watch for trouble but also to help them stay at ease. Hard to get shot by the girl facing the other way. Slipping her ear buds in, she watched and waited. _Its coming up, its coming up, its coming up, its Dare!_

The song was almost over when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning to it, she saw an older man with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache with hair just starting to gray on the temples. "Hello, I'm Akoto, the village chief. I understand you are a bounty hunter?"

"That I am, chief. And these bandits that are bothering you have been bothering enough people that I'll be paid well for eliminating them." Reaching into a pocket, she pulled her BHA identification and handed it to him. He took it out and did a quick search for her with his scroll before handing it back.

"Your record says you're good. And with a bit of a hero complex, how many villages is this that you just happen to be near?"

"Oh, there was no near on this one. I saw the problem was bandits and hauled ass."

He watched her for a moment before chuckling. "Alright. What's your suggestion, Miss Crescent."

"Right now they're probably more or less scouting you out for the actual raid. Which means now would be the time to actually engage them, when they know little about us."

"But we know little about them."

"Not so. We know they are bandits, successful ones. Which means they are skilled in surviving out there, skilled in hiding, skilled in breaching defenses, and finally, have little regard for killing people. And if we didn't know that, what is good for the gander is good for the goose. The odds would be even."

"So that's what you want us to do, fight?"

"No, not you, just me. Living out here, I have no doubt you can handle the odd grimm or small pack, but these aren't unthinking beast. They're people, you're guards might hesitate, they won't. I won't hesitate either."

"So, why not just go hunt them?"

"Go out there? I could, I might just be able to win. But just because I can, doesn't mean I should. They own that forest, and anything I do to completely overwhelm them is going to draw attention. On this field or in this town, things are different. Out here, complete line of sight and no hiding places. In there, narrow paths and restrained points of view and no hiding for large groups. Further more, if I go out there, they'll scatter and just do this at a later date when I can't stop them. But should they come in, it will be much harder to escape."

"So you want us to do what?"

"Once they start heading this way, you and your people enter a bunker and wait, I'll handle the rest."

"But what about our supplies? With how limited they are, its why we haven't just given them some." That made Gaige snort and shake her head. "What?"

"They might be looking for supplies but that wouldn't save you. Why take some when they can just kill you and take all?"

"Because that will bring the grimm."

"Which they can easily escape and leave them behind to finish you off. About the supplies, take them into the bunkers as well, barricade them in houses, do what you feel is best. I promise that once the shooting starts, they'll be a bit too busy to take them."

"...You said they were scouting us out, how will you make them come in for a fight?"

"Two things, one is going to be to invite them in by removing the guards."

"And the second?"

"Give them a bloody nose and make them want to do far worse to me in return."

"...And once they are in? You're just one girl, they'll have at least thirty, I think."

"Probably more and for how to truly even the odds? Turrets. Lots of automated turrets. Twenty four to be precise. Give me a half hour and this village will be a death trap for the unwelcome."

—oo000oo—

Raven Branwen glared at the girl as she walked the wall, placing down these little boxes, possibly mines. All four times she did, she would look out in the forest and smirk, daring her to do something but as much as she wanted to, she knew she didn't have enough members here just yet to fight her and the villagers both. As more were arriving, the guards suddenly all withdrew, leaving the girl alone on the wall. "...Is she that stupid," one of her tribe muttered. "Her against all of us?"

"Don't forget, she's had time in there to prepare," Raven replied. "We don't know the layout yet."

"So, what are we going to do... Rifle, get down," he suddenly started whispering as he ducked behind a tree. Raven did the same and placed mirror on the end of a knife see around it. It was the girl, she stood alone on the wall holding a sniper rifle and panning back and forth, looking for them.

Up in the branches, one of her tribe was looking through some binoculars at her. "Put those damn things down, she'll see the glare," Raven hissed

"Heh, that rifle has a bunny drawn on-" _**Bang! BOOM! **_She never finished it, a bullet hit her head and both exploded.

"...Explosive round," Raven muttered, quickly throwing away the mirror. A round hit it even as it flew away and she could feel the force of the explosion.

The girl waited a few moments before calling out, "What was it you said? The weak die, the strong live?"

"She's putting the rifle away...and she's grabbing a rocket launcher," one of the bandits that could see her stated.

"Let's see how you like it on the other end." She leaned against the back railing and put her foot against the other as she raised it up. Then she fired and seven rockets came out at once in a fan spread. And then she fired three more times.

When the barrage was over, Raven was far from where she had been hiding. Coming from a crouch, she scowled and called, "Azule, how many did we lose? Azule?"

"Over...here," she heard a weak voice called out. Raven turned to him and horror covered her face. Everything below his waist was gone while the flesh of his left arm, shoulder and side of his face were melting into green goo. "...By your face, its bad." It was now eating away at the bone. "Don't go in there," he tried to get out. "Not with her..." His mouth was trying to move but it had gotten through his skull. Taking her sword, she ended it before looking around. Most of her clan weren't injured but enough were. And facing the village, she saw that little girl standing there, flipping her off, making her blood boil.

When she started reloading, Raven shouted her order to attack before opening a portal to appear by her. The little red head turned to her with a smile, "Good!" Discarding the rocket launcher, she grabbed a pistol from her side and used it and her metal arm to catch the blade of her sword. The girl wasn't the first cyborg that tried to do that but she was the first her fire dust blade hadn't been enough to cut through. Though the hand began to glow red with heat, it didn't break. Instead it clasped around the sword and held it there, letting her pull back the barrel of the gun before pressing it to her stomach. Two trigger pulls was enough for Raven, she let one hand fall from her sword to knock it aside and then punching the girl in the face. Pulling her blade free as the girl spun, she went for a stab but found the girl parried with what looked liked a regular carpenter's hammer. Knocking the blade to the side first, Raven brought it around for a slash only for the red head to spin her hammer around and punch with them. Her fingers stopped the blade on the edge with the forked ends around it. A sudden twist and the sword was snapped in half. "Oops, there I went and broke your little toy!" She back stepped and summoned a belt fed machine gun to her side, one that ended with a bayonet. But she didn't turn it on Raven, she spun around and stabbed one of the other bandits in the chest with it. Squeezing the trigger, she shot through him at others while using his body as an impromptu shield before kicking him off and jumping down from the wall.

Having by now replaced her blade with her scabbard, Raven glanced for the rocket launcher with the hopes of turning it on that bitch only to find it missing. Didn't matter. Though now that she looked, she saw those strange boxes that she placed on the walls also attached to the walls of the buildings near the roofs. Not mines then that meant... She looked at the number of her tribe that were now over the wall, unable to see because of those buildings. "Turrets! Fall back!"

—oo000oo—

"Too late," Gaige said, activating them all at once. Clicking filled the village as the turrets unfolded and then came the gunshots. Shooting those near her, she smirked and shouted, "Nothing kills like overkill, suckas!" Bringing her fist up and activating the digistruct rod in her arm, Deathtrap came into existence. Followed by putting her arm across her chest and doing it again. Two surveyors, using the programs for Wilhelm's Wolf and Saint, digitized around her and provided support. Gaige won't lie, she loves tech and was more than willing to steal it from her enemies. Wasn't any different than taking a gun from their bodies in her opinion. Deathray focused on fire support while the second, Fix-it, used repair programs to keep both Deathtrap and Deathray flying along with the shooting as well as a shield for all there.

Oh the looks on their faces when three robots come flying at them followed by bolts and bullets of lightning. It was pure pandemonium and Gaige charged back into the fray joyfully. Idly, she wondered what the villagers must think is going on outside because to her it sounds almost like a war zone, especially since the turrets on the wall, pointed out to make sure none got away, were equipped with rocket launchers.

Gaige suddenly felt a blow that knocked her down and ate up a good chuck of her shield. Turning around, she smiled up at the leader. "Is it good for you," Gaige asked, cheekily, jumping back up and pulling out the Rex. Shooting at her, Gaige wasn't surprised she blocked the bullets with her sword as she closed the distance once again. Going for a slash, Gaige blocked it by grabbing the hilt and her hand. "I don't know what you're so upset about it, I'm just doing my job! Preying on those that prey on others and hunting down some epic loot! And this sword looks quite nice to me!"

"Fuck you!"

"Oh come on, you said it yourself, the weak die and the strong live! I think I've proven which of us is which!" Gaige again dug her gun into her stomach but this time would be different. Greed was nice and all but it didn't hold a candle to Rex. The first shot knocked the woman's breath away. The second broke a rib. Her aura absorbed both though. The third punched through aura, ribs, lung, and out her back, making her stumble away. Gaige let her hand go and kept the sword, grabbing the scabbard to go with it. "Hmm, very nice? Wonder what Zer0 will think of it?"

The woman fell to the ground, quickly going into shock. She couldn't remember when someone wounded her like this last. She could hear the turrets slowing down their fire and came to the grim conclusion that she lost. "...I'll kill you," she promised.

"No, you won't," Gaige said while walking up and looking her in the eyes while extending the pistol to shoot her in the head. Only for Raven to fall through a portal that appeared underneath her before it was in position. "...Huh, so that's how she was getting behind me." Gaige shrugged while opening her storage decks and placing the sword inside. "Don't worry baby, I'll take good care of you." Waiting for the gunfire to taper off, she dismissed Deathtrap, Deathray, Fix-it, and the turrets before heading to the bunker. Knocking on the door three times, she stepped on her bike, started the engine, and drove away, climbing the stairs to the top of the wall to jump off.

When the door to the bunker finally opened, the chief and several guards stepped out to find the village looking grim but still standing and the damage superficial. No buildings were on fire, the walls weren't crumbling, and doors weren't broken down. There were just bodies, many of them. Soon enough, they heard gunfire in the forest along with the dying roar of grimm. Gaige had went out to hold them off for a while.

—oo000oo—

Early next morning, Gaige walked into the tavern with a smile on her face, "Whiskey, your finest."

"...Coming right up," Leon replied, pouring her a glass and handing it to her. "What's got you in a good mood?"

"Easy to understand, uncomplicated heroics, I love it," she said, taking a drink. "I slayed bandits and grimm for hours, it was bliss! Wonderfully simple."

—oo000oo—

Ozpin watched the footage over and over again of her just appearing from a hole the box made in the air before somehow forming the bike in a shower of lights. Things were getting complicated.

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: See you Space Cowboy


	4. Fear the Cute Little Girl

_**Or 'No, They Really are Scary!'**_

—oo000oo—

Qrow was heading back to Vale when he stopped for the night. Ozpin sounded very urgent and said that what he had to talk to him about couldn't be spoken of over the CCT. But then, everything with Ozpin was urgent. Though this was the first that talking over the scroll was too risky. Regardless, it was too dark now to continue even for him so he found a tavern to hold up in for the night and started drinking. About an hour in, a man sat down next to him. One that Qrow refused to look at. "...Hey, miss, this guy get's his own drinks, he isn't sharing my bottle," he told the waitress before she could even start bringing him over a glass.

"Good to see you too, Qrow," the older man said.

"What brought you out of retirement, _'dad'_," Qrow asked.

"Raven taking a bullet to her left lung."

"Hah! That's a good one! ...You're serious. So, 'The Strong and the Weak' Raven finally felt the other side of the stick. Well, who do I owe a drink to?"

"This is serious, Qrow," he said to him.

"That I already guessed, Old Man." Qrow finished his glass and refilled it. "Why are you here?"

"...We need your help."

"So you actually came to me? Must be desperate."

"They killed fifty seven of us, Qrow, and almost killed your sister!"

"Who made it very clear to me how much family ties matter."

"One girl, Qrow! It was ONE GIRL! That threw lightning around like it was a toy!"

"And what does this mean to me?"

"I can think of only one person someone like that could work for. She came looking for us!"

"Yeah, and just where did she find you when she came looking? Or did you think I had forgotten that you're a collection of thieves and murderers? And now you're here whining to me because someone's got your number. What did you think would happen, there isn't a single group in the world that isn't your enemy. The bounty that Atlas alone has put on Raven's head is just absurd!" Qrow slammed his glass down and finally faced him. The Old Man was exactly that, old. There was no trace of blue remained in his hair, and despite the effort to remain strong, time was trying hard to put a frailty to him. A few scars litter his cheeks and his nose had been broken a few times yet you could still see the handsome face beneath it. One completely unlike Qrow's own.

The Old Man had no answer for that one, Qrow had never approved of their raiding. Not that his silence didn't answer it anyway. "...That doesn't change who this one works for."

"You suspect she works for her," Qrow corrected, facing forward again. "You haven't actually said anything besides suspicion."

"Because I don't know...the only survivor was Raven herself." Qrow glanced to him at that. The tribe were experts at making a getaway when things got too hot for them. "And what I do know came from Raven's shouts and grumblings before she was put under to make it easier to mend her. She mentioned a hail of gunfire, flying robots, this smiling redheaded 'bitch', and lightning. And a metal arm."

Qrow blinked a moment before grabbing his scroll and opening it up to a picture sent to him by Goodwitch. A young girl with red hair and a metal arm. "Where and when did this happen?"

"Seventeen hour ago, near Shion outside of Mistral."

"Seventeen? Hmm. Maybe your story is a bit more believable than I thought. So, thanks for telling me, now what do you want me to do? Come back and help you fight her? Cause I'm not sure if you've noticed but I haven't been at the family reunion lately."

"...You don't even care that your sister almost died, do you?"

"Raven is my sister and I love her but she made her choice when she abandoned her daughter and family. There is nothing more to say. I'll keep an eye out and look into this girl, otherwise go away, Old Man." He didn't look to him when he got up and left but when he finished his glass, he used the rest of the bottle to refill his canteen. "Guess I'm not stopping for the night."

—oo000oo—

Rubbing his face as he walked into Ozpin's office, he groaned out, "Maybe I should've stopped and slept. Alright, I'm here, what's so important?"

"Qrow, I didn't expect you so soon," the headmaster of Beacon said to him.

"With how cryptic your message was, I had to come. Besides, I have news for you as well. So, who should go first?"

"You go first, it might just be good news."

"No, not really, more of just regular news. Someone put a bullet in my sister's lung and killed many of her bandits. Fifty of them about at around the same time you sent me that girl's picture. A girl with red hair and a metal arm if the Old Man is to be believed."

Ozpin sighed and took a drink from his cup before asking, "Where at?"

"Shion." Qrow noted that there was a pause from Ozpin before he continued.

"That settles it then, she really is teleporting around."

"That little girl in the picture you sent me?"

"Yes. Because yesterday with the exception of just eleven hours, she was in Vale."

"Okay, that doesn't mean much though."

"During those same hours, I believed she was the one hacked into the Atlas military mainframe, and recently she has been working for me in trying to smoke out the White Fang. I'm starting to wonder if Salem is using her to change tactics and get her close to me. Sacrificing Grimm to make her seem like she's saving villages, interfering with the rest of her agents, and I pull her right to my side."

"Oh."

"Qrow, is she the woman that attacked Autumn?"

Qrow frowned and grabbed his scroll to look at the picture again. "...Do you have a recording of her voice?"

Ozpin pressed some buttons on his desk and the holo-screen changed to show Gaige. _"I'll make the little bird sing before I clip his wings."_

"...No, that's not her. If she does work for Salem, she's not one I've encountered before."

Ozpin frowned but changed the image to show a circle with an arch in it. "Do you know what this is?"

"I've seen it once or twice but I'm not deep enough in the Oz-luminati to say what it is."

"This, Qrow, is the origin of all the great technological advancements of the last one hundred years. What it means exactly, we don't know, though I'm starting to get a suspicion, and the locations of such symbols are rare and tightly guarded. Those that do know what it is believe they are markers to something far greater yet from what we have been able to gleam from the sites alone led to the creation of the Knights and Paladins."

"Impressive."

"So why is such a tightly guarded secret on a young woman with no history what-so-ever beyond the last six weeks? Look at her belt buckle."

"...So, want me to bring her in?"

"No, not yet at least, just watch her. And be careful, along with the tribe, she's been clearing out a few White Fang bases with extreme prejudice." Qrow's scroll chimed as it received a file. "That's everything we have of her, every recording, interaction, and fact we know. Including weapons that we have seen. She probably has more though."

"Then I'll get started."

"Qrow..." The man looked to Ozpin to see just how serious his face was about what he had to say next. "That young woman is more brilliant than any I have met before and she has little problem with killing. Be careful, I don't believe that even your animal form will go unnoticed for long if you're out in the open."

"No problem, Oz, I got this."

—oo000oo—

Gaige sat on the stool, humming to herself as she slowly sipped her whiskey and enjoyed a meal. This late, no one else was in the Starlight Tavern but her and Leon, who was at the end of the bar, going over inventory. He looked up to an open window as a crow landed on it and looked inside. "Bah, go away."

Gaige looked over and smiled at the bird. "Leave him, crows are pretty cool, smart too. I once saw three crows get into a garbage bin when the lid was weighted down with cinder blocks. Two of them wedge their beaks under the lip and then lifted it up enough for the third one to get inside. Damnedest think I had ever seen. They even recognize the face of people they like and don't like."

"Huh, kinda figured you for a parrakeet kind of girl."

"Hah! As if I would ever like something that froufrou!"

"Says the girl with a tech upgrade she calls 'Potent as a Pony'."

"You don't understand my methods, Leon! ...Oh god, I'm turning into Tina." She up ended her glass and slammed it back down empty. Grabbing the bottle, she refilled her glass and emptied it again.

"Do I want to know?"

"Tina is...a mercenary from home, a lot like me, but where I like robots and lasers, she's into puppies that will love your face off and explosions." Gaige shook her head and poured more. She was about to drink it when she heard the crow caw at her from the next chair. "...Why not," she muttered, setting the glass on the counter to see what the bird would do. Surprisingly, it hopped to the glass, reach it's beak in, and began to drink some. "...Well, it looks like I found a drinking buddy."

—oo000oo—

Gaige had pulled her hood up and changed the color of her clothes. It wouldn't really be enough to hide who she was to someone that was paying the right kind of attention. But with her clothes being black with orange, demonic circles on it with her eyes glowing so profainly, the guy she was talking to could never recognize her after this.

"Where's Torchwick!?" Fist to the stomach. "Where is he!? You think I won't kill you," Gaige demanded before throwing the criminal down onto the road and driving a steel rebar through his calf. "Tell me where he is!" When all she got was screams and curses, she picked her bike up and set it over him, the rear tire pressing against his neck. And then she started it and revved the engine. "When I let off the break, that tire is tearing through you like a cheese grater!"

"Fuck you, I have rights!" _**Brrrrowww!**_ "You can't do this!" _**BRRROWWW!**_ "You crazy bitch!"__The bike jerked back just a touch and the break on the rear tire was let starting it spinning. The man tried to pull away but couldn't move with the bike pinning him down. "Stop, STOP!" The bike jerked forward, he could feel the air move the hairs on his neck. "Last I heard he's at dock warehouse thirteen, was looking for some guys to kill someone!" The engine cut off and the bike was lifted up.

"You better turn yourself over to the police because if I don't find anything there, I'm coming for you and I will drop you in a pool of acid and watch you die." Gaige drove off, not bothering to free him from the rebar. A few moments later, a crow landed on the bar and gave a caw before flying after her.

—oo000oo—

"Hey Leon, give me the special and a Guiness," Gaige called, walking through the door and sitting down. Only for the crow to fly through the window again and land beside her. "Make that two specials and two glasses."

"You're gonna kill that bird," Leon told her, filling two glasses.

"If he wants to drink himself to death, who am I to stop him?"

"Normally I would agree but that's a crow."

"Tell me something, what doesn't have an aura?"

"Grimm."

"Because they don't have souls. That implies that anything with an aura has a soul, yes?"

"Of course."

"So we know this bird here has a soul, is intelligent enough to recognize people it likes and doesn't like by face, and only ever complains when I offer him water instead of alcohol. Doesn't that imply it is smart enough to make it's own choices?"

After a moment, Leon shook his head, barely able to understand that he is having this conversation. "Fine but I am cutting him off after one, I don't want him flying around and shitting on things."

"Fine, fine, what I don't get is why haven't you at least posted it on the web. A crow that flies into a tavern every day for a drink is sure to draw a crowd."

"Because I'm certain that it is going to drink itself to death. ...How about this, how the hell does a crow understand the difference between top shelf and bottom shelf booze?"

"A question for aged sages," Gaige replied. "Know anyone that might be interested in buying about twenty dust nodachi blades?"

"You come across... No, nevermind, probably better I don't know."

"Oh, it isn't bad. Took it from this bandit leader after I almost killed her. One more second and she would be a memory but...well, doesn't matter to much. I got her weapon though." She summoned it to her hands and set it on the counter. "Nice tool, isn't it?"

"...Yeah, it is," Leon said as he pulled it out of the scabbard before pushing it back. "Why do you want to sell it?"

"I don't want to sell _it_, just the blades. As nice as they are, dust breaks down far to fast for my taste. I can craft a series of blades that can be charged by crystals just as effectively as a blade made from it that is far more durable."

"That is...scary to think about. Why not replace the blade and scabbard?"

"Well..." Gaige glanced around and leaned forward. "The blades themselves won't need crystals. Not after the forging. A fire blade, a lightning, acidic, ice, what have you. I can make blades that will never need charging, will never break down, and only minor maintenance. But each blade will only have one element."

"I would say that is impossible but I keep getting the feeling more and more that you specialize in the impossible."

"Smart man."

"...I would say 'From Dust till Dawn' will take them off your hands or maybe you can try Beacon. They are always in need of dust."

"Thanks Leon. So, what's the tab to anyway?"

"Hmm. Two meals and Guiness, and the information, you're still ahead by five hundred lien at least."

Gaige nodded and glanced to the crow that was staring at the sword quite intently. "So, I guess we're gonna have to name him, huh? How about Steve? Or Poe?"

"Poe?"

"Poe it is," Gaige exclaimed, taking the offered glasses. "Don't drink it too fast, Poe, you'll get sick."

—oo000oo—

The bike sat on block with the rear tire spinning and a masked White Fang member was held in Gaige's hands. "Right now this whole scene is just PG-13 but if you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll turn it R real quick," Gaige warned, moving his face closer to the wheel. "You two, pay attention." She said that to two more restrained members. By now, they could hear the whine as the rubber just barely scraped the mask. She waited a moment longer to see if he would crack before shoving the hardcore member's face into the tire. Dropping the body to the side, she went to the next and pulled the second one up. Who used the chance to shove his shoulder into Gaige's stomach and tried to run away. A bullet from Greed turned him to ash. She had just turned around and began reaching for the last living member of this group when he spoke.

"I'll talk."

"Good." She set a map of Vale and Remnant before him and a pen. "Mark where you know there are White Fang bases." He quickly did so, even getting some outside of Vale. "Alright, I'll let you live and without crippling you even. Now, naturally, you can't tell your bosses that you told me about this, they'll kill you. Would they notice if you survived and went missing?"

"...Yes."

Gaige frowned at that and looked to the side as she considered what to do. "Well, why not? Gotta put that to use somehow. Get in the side car."

"What?"

"I said, get in the side car, now!"

—oo000oo—

"Now, you know what you are going to tell them," Gaige asked the kid.

"Tell them you tortured and killed the rest and left me alive as a message," he repeated back to her.

"And what did I do to make sure you could never hide who you are behind a mask again?"

The kid pulled his mask off and there was a scar outline of the mask on his face. "Made it so everyone can tell what I do."

"And what will happen to you if they ever see that scar is a fake?" His face paled as he considered that. "You are going to tell them you want out, after what you have seen, you don't want to be part of this anymore. Describe to them what I did if you have to. You want out. Make no mistake about that, you really, _really_ do. Because if I see you with that mask again, I'll either kill you, or truly give you those scars. Understand?"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Run." Gaige turned around, collapsed the sidecar, and drove off. All under the watchful gaze of a crow.

—oo000oo—

"Hey Leon! Any word from Junior when he will be done?"

"The end of the week," he replied, busy with the tavern being full.

"Good to know," Gaige stated, checking the time, she gave the kid a day. Fourteen hours until she went there. "...I'm going out." She got up and headed for the door, hopped on her bike and drove away. Coming to a stop at her quick travel station, she looked over her map. Marking a ruins she had heard about, she activated the station for the closest point to. "...You stay here, Poe, this isn't going to be safe." She stepped through and quickly closed it before someone saw. Revving the engines, she headed for the ruins, unable to miss that Poe had followed her. Once she got there, she summoned Fix-it and Deathray. As they flew about, Gaige had the Bad Touch in hand, ready to shoot any Grimm that came her way. They were here, she just make them out at the corner of her eyes but they never came close. Possibly because of the guns but she had a reason to suspect that maybe it was the giant Vault symbol she was standing on.

"_**Hello, Eridian,"**_ a dark voice called from around her.

"...Nice guess but I'm no Eridian."

"_**But you wear their cursed symbols. An agent you may be but still Eridian."**_

"...It was a prison, and you came out of it," Gaige stated.

"_**So smart, little girl."**_

"Then I really have no reason to stick around."

"_**Oh, you would leave me to do as I please?"**_

"...Eh, probably not. I love thrilling heroics."

"_**Then come into my parlor, I trust you can find it."**_

"Oh yeah, that won't be a problem." Whatever it was speaking through vanished and with it the Grimm. She was still a moment before raising a hand to her ear. "...Axton, what's your ETA?"

"_Just over a week, longer if you tell me to leave behind Tina."_

"Bring her and step it up, things have just gotten more complicated."

"_How bad?"_

"Area isn't secure, can't go into detail but I'm going to need the extra guns. Sending you coordinates on where to land."

"_Got it, be there in two days."_

"Good, and Tina. Bring out your puppies."

"_REALLY!?" _shouted the excitable girl.

"Enrique, Jean, and every weapon you have."

"_Oh, yeah, shorty, this is gonna be AWESOME!"_

"See you two soon."

—oo000oo—

Back in the Tavern, Gaige sat at the bar when she got a call. "Gaige Crescent."

"_Miss Crescent,"_ Ozpin said to her.

"Ah, the wonderful wizard of Ozpin. So, what can I do for you?"

"_I was hoping you could come in and give a demonstration at the school."_

"Oh, I get to play with the kiddies?"

"_You're the same age they are. Regardless, yes, I would like you to come in some time soon."_

"Hmm. The soonest I can come in will be in two days."

"_Can't come in sooner?"_

"Nope, I have a meeting with the Fangs in an hour. Oh, I guess I should warn you that there is going to be explosions shortly. And lightning. And lasers. And bullets. Just ignore the smell of overcooked flesh."

"_Are you trying to disturb me?"_

"Oh no, just reminding you just what you hired, though I don't know why I bother. After all, you have been having me watched," she said, looking at Poe with a grin.

"_...I don't know what you are talking about."_

"I'm looking at your spy right now. And am pointing my gun at his head." Greed was now on the counter, aimed at Poe. "I must admit, a bird was very nice and I didn't see it at first. But a crow that always pays attention and is always following me? Noobish move. So, I've been calling him Poe but you already know that."

"_...Qrow, go ahead and show yourself."_

"He can't hear you, Oz. So, his name is actually Qrow?" The bird gave up the pretense of being just a bird and transformed back into a person.

"Mind putting that popgun down?"

"Sure, Qrow, after all, you work for my employer. So, what do you think about what all you saw?"

"...I don't know, but you scare me, little girl."

That just made Gaige grin. "Good, now get lost. If I see you again, I will shoot you."

"Alright. Thanks for the drinks."

"Oh yeah, Ozpin, normal crows don't drink whiskey. See you in two days."

—oo000oo—

The train tunnel was dark, the power long since cut off, as Gaige moved down it. The kid said this was the big one. Whatever was down here was critical for what was coming up. Stopping when she saw the lights farther down so the echo wouldn't warn them, she walked forward. Coming up to a train, she watched it a moment before reached into a bag and began placing explosives on each car and the engine. Coming to the back of it, she pulled herself up and entered the last car. Seeing a crate, she opened it and found it filled with dust. "Shit." It was just one of three on this car but if it was filled, it would be a massive bomb. That can be driven right to the center of Vale. If she hadn't found this, the city itself might have been turned into a massive crater. _'No survivors this time. Everyone here knows exactly what is going to happen.'_

Walking out of the car, she pulled out Greed and shot a worker in the head. Summoning Deathtrap, she said, "Kill them all." As Deathtrap flew forward, Gaige headed for the stairs. Three steps up, she hit the detonator and blew up the train. Between her explosives and the dust, it caused the tunnel to collapse. As she began hunting the other members down, she noticed Deathrap's heathbar suddenly take a hit. A big one for this planet. Turning around, she ran for where her bot was. Calling Fix-it to her side, she sent it to repair Deathtrap. "...Isn't that... Adam Taurus," she said as she began to smile. "Deathtrap, don't kill that one!" Deathtrap floated back and withdrew the digistruct claws he had formed. "Go kill the others," she ordered while replacing Greed for her Blasster.

She could see the scowl on the face of the ox faunus despite the mask. "You, you're the one responsible for the attacks on White Fang!"

"Ah, no, you are, Adam Taurus," Gaige countered. "Do you really think I would be here killing you shitheads if you didn't piss someone off enough to hire me to do so? The truth is, Taurus, you are beneath my personal notice. I have far bigger concerns than an angry, little boy with a thing for dangerous toys."

"Is that what I am?"

"Well, to me, you certainly not a threat. Tell you what though, if you tell me where Roman Torchwich is, I'll just remove your right arm and left leg, instead of those _and_ the horns on your head."

"What did that human do to now," he growled.

"Ah, so he is the one supplying you with dust. Taurus, you only have until I remove both to tell me before I won't accept your surrender," she warned him before she began shooting. If just to herself, Gaige had to admit it was kinda cool to see him slash with his sword and cutting the bullet in half. Too bad for him she was using an e-tech which meant that the bullet wasn't just charged with lightning, it _was_ lightning. So the lightning hit him, then came the fire. And the rest of the burst she fired at him. And yet, despite the damage she could see it was doing to his aura, he didn't lose his stance. Whoever had trained this boy should be proud in his skill, if not what he does with it. Adam sheathed his sword and charged her, his sword shooting out and striking her in the head. The hit actually bit into her shield a fair ways. Too bad it didn't disorient her or knock her off balance. Her robotic arm caught the blade before he did and threw it back behind her, driving it into the concrete wall. "I'm sorry, did you actually think that was a good idea!? Its a fucking sword, not a damned bullet!"

"Shut up," he snarled, bringing his scabbard around and aiming it at her, revealing the double barrels on the bottom. Though he fired, it didn't bother her either. Instead, Gaige met him, slamming her arm into his chest and bringing her rifle up and swinging the bayonet for his neck. Adam leaned back while reaching a hand to her waist and snapped up the Greed. He somersaulted and landed in a crouch, aiming the revolver at her with one hand. Just for giggles, she didn't deactivate it. _**BANG!**_ "FUCK!" Though the bullet hit her, any actual damage to her shields would have taken otherwise was healed by the lightning and it was worth it to see him cradling his broken wrist.

Gaige was on him in an instant, driving her knee into his face, shattering his mask, revealing a brand from the Schnee Dust Company over his left eye. She saw him bring his shotgun scabbard up and grabbed it with her cybernetic arm, pushing down to hit him again in the face, this time breaking his nose. Activating her grenade, she just gripped his face and let it hit him.

"GRAAAAGH!" She let go of him, dropped him to the ground, and shook her head. Somehow, he still had aura left.

As he struggled to get up, she said, "How can you still fight? Why, for that matter."

"I will never be defeated by a disgusting human like you," he somehow got out. Gaige shrugged as she picked the Greed back up, pressed it to the back of his left knee and fired, removing half his leg. "FUUAAAHHH!" Gaige grabbed his arm and raised it while turning it. "N-No, not my Aagh-haa!" He gripped his arm and began to curl in on himself. But it didn't keep his personality down long. "Does this make you feel powerful, torturing a faunus?"

Gaige blinked as she grabbed his scabbard and knelt before him. "You don't remember."

"Remember what," he demanded.

"Robert Bright. A year ago, you, not someone else, _you_ cut off the right arm and left leg of a human boy. He's been fitted with temporary prosthetics but his family can't afford some of the more advance ones that will adjust themselves as he grows." Gaige reached out, gripped a horn, and broke it off. "Amy Fenrus. Best friend of Robert Bright and wolf faunus girl. She 'protested' you cutting off Robert's arm and leg. You then cut off her left ear, calling her a traitor to her species. Despite that two nine year old children have no sense of hatred inside them, you did this." She grabbed the other horn and broke it too, no caring that they now bled. Gaige watched him a moment before summoning Deathray. "Help Deathtrap hunt down the rest of the White Fang members. No survivors." Gaige walked over to the sword and pulled it out, gave it a quick once over before sheathing it and storing it away. "I have a pretty good idea about what was to happen here so how about I run it by you," she stated as she walked back. "For whatever reason, you and Roman Torchwich are working together, he is supplying you with Dust that you then bring here. You load it up on the train and then send it into the heart of Vale. If that train is completely filled then it will easily destroy the City-State of Vale, the ultimate statement for the White Fang. How does that sound, hmm?" Gaige walked back before him and crouched down.

"Hmm. No, its missing something, what is it? Oh, right, your touch." He began to scowl at her even harder than before. "It isn't enough for you just to kill your enemy, you like to see them suffer first. To make up for the pain they have put faunus through. Or for the betrayal they have done to their people. So, what else could you do that would almost completely guaranty the destruction of Vale while at the same time make its people wallow in hopelessness and horror before they die? ...Maybe put the hordes of grimm in this area right inside the city where they aren't prepared?" She smiled when Taurus snarled. "Yeah, that does sound like you. And the Faunus caught in it, blood traitors and necessary sacrifices. Want to know how I know all this? Because, the truth is you are nothing new. There has always been men like you, there will always be men like you. And I make my living killing monsters like you. Now, I have told my employer that I will make you talk before you die and I intend to do just that but die you will, Taurus. And you will beg before I let your suffering end." Pulling him up, Gaige grabbed his broken mask and horns as well. "I know just how to inform the world you are done, too."

—oo000oo—

"And so, it was then that the military of Mantle rebelled and formed Atlas ," Doctor Oobleck told his class, speaking of how a kingdom became a military state. "This led to..."

Suddenly the screen activated and all the scrolls in the room received a ping. Almost as one, the students activated them and saw the image of a broken, white and red White Fang mask. _**"There is a criminal of the worse sorts walking this world. He is responsible of the Schnee Transit Incident, where seventy three men and women, human and faunus lost their lives. The explosion at Kikowani Station, which ended one hundred and twenty one lives. The destruction of the Grand Rapids Power relay, ultimately costing the lives of four hundred and eleven people." **_A horn fell to the ground by the mask, then another. _**"He gave the authorization for the kidnapping of human children and then giving them over to a child killer. Some of you may have already guess his name. Adam Taurus."**_ The camera panned up and focused the man, hanging by his remaining leg, his destroyed arm in sight, and blood dripping from his horns and broken nose, the SDC brand on full display. _**"Make no mistake, I did this to Taurus because he has been killing people and maiming others I don't give a damn who he kills or why he kills, just that he kills. So this message goes out to his victims. Justice will be served. And to the White Fang, I'm coming for the rest of you."**_ The screen went blank except for a red anarchy symbol.

In class, two students were more effected than others. Wiess Schnee who was grateful that the murderer of her friends was finally captured and would pay, though disturbed to see _that_ on his face, and Blake Belladonna, who was in both shock and horror, wondering if she had caused this.

—oo000oo—

"How far did it reach," James Ironwood demanded as he entered the Information Control Center.

"Everywhere," an operator replied. "We're getting reports from every corner that they received the hack. The entire world knows that someone took down Taurus."

"Where did it come from?"

"It was sent out from all four of the CCTs at the same instant. No one is that good to do it remotely."

"Except that hacker," another tech stated.

"I told you before, no human could be that fast, it had to be a machine!"

"Someone get me answers," Ironwood nearly shouted. "Who, where, why, I want to know in a half hour." Hearing the phone ring and knowing only one group had this number, he picked it up. "Council."

"_Who did it?"_

"I am cracking that whip on every agent I have, when I know, you will know. Coordination has also begun between me and other select individuals around the world. Headmaster Ozpin being one of them."

"_What do you know?"_

"They work almost faster than humanly possibly, and did so remotely while hacking into the CCTs all at once. There are those that believe that a machine is what is actually doing it."

"_...What about PEn3, can it be of use?"_

"Unknown, PEn3 was not designed with this in mind, I will question the doctor immediately about whether or not it can." When he heard nothing else, he hung up and went to see the doctor and Penny without wasting a moment.

—oo000oo—

"_So you really took him down alone?"_

"Sure did," Gaige stated, blowing on some noodles before lifting them to her mouth and eating them. "I'll never get enough of the food off Pandora," she said as she chewed her soba soup.

"_Don't talk with your mouth full," _the person on the other side of the line stated. _"So what were they planning?"_

"Oh you know, blowing up a train to either destroy Vale or let the grimm in to do it instead. Same result, just take longer. Mmm, I forgot how good chicken was. What about you, Penny, what's your favorite food?"

"_Oh, my sense of taste is still only twenty percent that of a humans and my digestive system isn't as efficient so I am still relying on a dust generator."_

"Hmm, maybe have your grandfather Gepeto send me some schematics, I'll see what I can do." _Grrr._ "Deathtrap hopes to meet you in person soon."

"_And I hope to meet him soon too! Oh, Grandfather says thank you for your thoughts on synthetic flesh coating, he never thought of something so simple."_

"What can I say, I'm a woman of science and kicka-ah-ha, well, an amazing woman of science."

"_That you are, Gaige! And I, oh, the General is coming this way, from his steps he is probably very agitated, quite possibly from your message. I should go."_

"Bye Penny, talk to you soon." Gaige took her shoes off the desk and walked outside, looking at Taurus, still hanging there out over the ocean. A man fully hydrated will take eleven days about to die. Taurus lost a lot of blood so he might not live that long. So at about half that, she will take him down and start the information gathering. Seeing a call coming, she activated it, "Gaige."

"_Ozpin."_

"Ah, headmaster, so unusual to hear from you so quickly. I imagine this has something to do with the message sent out recently."

"_Actually, it does. Would that happen to have been you?"_

"Hmm. Headmaster, I would have to assume that the hacking necessary to do that would be highly illegal. So even if I had been the one to do that, I would never actually admit to it. And you know that just as you knew that I would say that very thing. Now, I have somewhere to be and something to do, is there anything else you wanted?"

"_No and you are correct in that I was expecting you to say no. May I ask where you are?"_

"In a private workshop building something at the moment. A workshop that I want to remain private."

"_May I ask what you are building?"_

"No, you may not. Oz, I'm sensing a lot of distrust here, is there a problem?"

"_I apologize, some strange things has been happening lately and I am merely wondering if you are the source of it or if there is something I haven't accounted for."_

"Bye, Headmaster." Gaige hung up, not waiting for a confirmation. A distrusting employer, a monster loose from a Vault, and an asshole she still needed to interrogate. A sigh, she looked at the computer monitor to see if the programming had finish downloading. Noting that it was, she picked up both pieces of equipment and set them in a heavy weapon's case before going to the Fast Travel console. Selecting Vale, she reappeared there and began to summon her bike. It was only chance that she saw the glint. Walking over to it, Gaige found a camera and sighed. She tried to hack into it but found it on a closed circuit. "Not bad, Headmaster, not bad." Grabbing it, she interfaced with it directly and began looping the footage from now on to show it not being used. She unfortunately couldn't synch it with the other cameras without someone noticing so that meant that her adjustment would likely be discovered in a few days. Course by then, Axton and Tina would be here. "I really hate it when I have to kill my employers. He seems like such a nice guy too." Well, she could at least give him the courtesy of letting him make the first move.

Summoning her bike, she began driving to her destination. It was only ten minutes into the drive that she noticed she was being followed. By a Bullhead no less, had to say she was impressed with how much Ozpin wants that information. Well, she knew how to deal with that. Turning off the road she was on, she headed for the nearest dive. Parking where the Bullhead couldn't see the bike, she cut the engine but left the keys in the ignition before heading in. "Whiskey," she said to the barkeep, "or whatever passes for it. Just a shot, I've got more driving to do today." Nursing that for twenty minutes, she didn't bother listening for her bike. Once she was done with the drink, she went to the bathroom. Taking off her cap, she put her hair back into her normal pigtails before frowning. Not enough. A grin came up as she locked the door and she activated a different application of her ECHO. Her clothes changed from her school uniform to the navy blue, pinstripe suit she had gotten from Goodwitch's tailor. Neatly combing the right side of her hair, she left the left a bit wild before putting on a pair of glasses. Picking the weapon case back up, she left the dive and walked away. Suddenly pausing a block later, she set the case on the ground and pulled out Greed, making a show of checking if it was loaded. The would be muggers quickly got the hint and stopped following her.

Once again on the main road, she walked down it while watching for a taxi until she passed a vehicle dealer. "...What am I going to do with the money anyways," she muttered, heading inside. She saw a man turn to her and put on a smile that did not in anyway make her skin crawl.

"Hello ma'am, I'm Sean Marquise, how can I help you today?"

"Yes, I'm in the market of a new vehicle. My current one is drawing the kind of attention I don't want right now."

"Well, I assure you ma'am, one of our Presidium made Furies is sure to make you stand out in the right way," he said, motioning over to side. Yup, skin not crawling with this guy.

"Yes, yes, except I have seen three Furies at the coffee shop alone just this morning. I want something that is looks powerful, unique." Something that is so impossible to miss that no one would consider it was her. As the man was suggesting something, Gaige spotted someone she recognized from Junior's bar and who recognized her in return pointing at something out of sight.

"Naturally then you will want the new..." He watched her walk away before quickly catching up to her. "Ma'am, as I was saying..."

"Why didn't you mention this," Gaige accused.

"I was about to..."

"You were going to mention the Premier you have in the warehouse," Gaige corrected him as she ran her flesh fingers along a 'bike'. It was a triple propeller hoverbike, white with blue highlights, made by the new Lergo company.

"...You caught me, ma'am," he admitted. "With your suit, I had just assumed."

"Save yourself some trouble, don't assume you know what I want."

"Yes. This is the Lergo Enforcer, the latest in sports-luxury bike. Hover so there is no resistance with the ground, it can drive anywhere, even over water with the max speed of three hundred and twenty seven miles an hour. When you dedicate the power supply to it, you'll be able to climb twenty feet in the air. And while standard configuration is a Y-frame for the propellers, it will automatically detect when coming to a pass too narrow and adjust it so one is in front while the other is underneath the seat. On a moderate windy day, it can go six hundred miles without refilling the tank and..."

"Keys," Gaige demanded.

"I'm sorry but its our policy that you can't start up the vehicles. Hey!" The other guy threw the keyfob to her and she climbed on. Activating it, she revved the engine and rose into the air as the stands melded into the frame. Going into a spin, she leaned this way and that to get a good feel for it. "Land the bike, land the bike! Land the bike and turn it off! WILL YOU PLEASE LAND THE," Gaige landed and shut it off, "FUCKING BIKE!" As nothing was covering up his voice, he echoed through the building.

"Of course, you did say please," Gaige said as she started standing.

"Please, leave," the dealer said while the manager came over to investigate and was handed a card reader from the second dealer.

"No," Gaige replied, patting the Enforcer. "I want this."

"Well unless you intend to live on it, I don't think that will be possible, it cost..."

"Two hundred and eighty thousand lien," Gaige interrupted while holding her card out for the manager. "Please, tell mister Marquise here how much is on this card alone." The man took it and ran it through the reader. When the number came up, Marquise made a pained moan while the other dealer just grinned. "Like I said, I want the Enforcer, this one. James, how's your brother Jerry? Girlfriend still mad at him?"

"He's good, he appreciates the suggestion you gave him. Frankly, I think they're going to get married soon."

"Good to hear. James gets the commission," she ordered. "Marquise, get started on the paperwork. I want to be out of here in ten minutes. I'm late enough for an important meeting." The look Marquise gave between her and James was one of complete agony before nearly running away. "Mister...Greenwood," she said, looking to the manager.

"Yes, ma'am, is there anything else we can do for you?"

"At this time no, just wanted to say that Marquise needs to ease off that smile of his, especially when he is being an ass. I nearly took my business elsewhere. From now on, whenever I come in, James is my agent, is that understood."

"Yes, ma'am, it will happen."

"Good." She checked her watch and said, "Eight minutes left, do you think he'll make it?"

"I do," James said before heading back to his office.

Sure enough, Marquise came out with the paperwork and had her sign it with just under a minute to spare. "I, uh, apologize for my behavior, ma'am."

"...Apology accepted," she said, holding a card at for the reader once more. "I commission for service but tip for speed and accuracy. A thousand lien tip for being fast. And watch yourself, Marquise, you never really know who will come in through those doors." Taking back the card, she turned for the open door and drove off.

—oo000oo—

Pulling up to an apartment close to the city wall, Gaige entered the building and headed up to the fourth floor. Knocking on the third door, she waited patiently for someone to answer. "Hello, Mrs. Bright?"

"Yes, can I help you," a woman in her mid thirties said.

"Yes, my name is Gaige Crescent, my card," she said as she pulled out a business card she had made just for this. "I represent an anonymous entrepreneur in the development of new medical technologies. I was hoping to speak with you, your husband, and your son about a new series of prosthesis."

"I'm sorry but we don't have the money for those."

"I am aware of this, Mrs. Bright, but this is happening in conjunction with a Sato Industries donation. I assume you have heard about his recent interest in groups that help people?"

"I have..." The woman tried to say more but ended up just nodding. "Please come in, it'll be a few minutes though. My husband is at work and my son is playing with a friend of his. The two of them are quite ecstatic."

"Yes, from what I understand there was some good news on the news today. The man that injured your son was captured by the law?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Bright told her, leading Gaige to the den. "They haven't told us anything about it though."

"Well, they may be trying to keep it tight-lipped if this victory was achieved by infiltration. Especially if the agent is still undercover."

"I hadn't considered that. Would you like some tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, please, with a spoon of coco mixed in if you would."

"Of course. Just let me make a quick call and... Yes, Anise, its Jessica. Can you send Robert home? Maybe you and Amy should come too. No, no, nothing bad, its...help, someone is finally helping. See you soon."

—oo000oo—

Taking a drink of her coffee, Gaige looked to the door and smiled at the knock before a boy limped into the home. "Mom, why did I have to..." He took one look at her and went quiet, quickly hiding his arm behind his back. "Uh, hello."

"Hi," Gaige said happily, setting the cup down and motioning across from her.

"Come here, Robert," Jessica said to him, getting the boy to sit down next to her.

"I'm Gaige," she said, holding out her left arm instead of her right. Partly so he wouldn't have to reach with his fake but mostly to show off her own arm.

"You have a prosthetic too?"

"Yeah," Gaige replied with a big smile and finally getting him to shake hands with her.

"Did a mean man cut yours off too?"

"No, nothing like that, this happened because of hyperactivity and power tools. But at least I got a cool robot arm out of it."

"...I don't like mine," he said, looking down.

"Well, that's because you don't have a good one." She looked over and saw Anise and Amy. "Hello, I trust things are going well today?"

"Yes they are, Miss Gaige," Amy said, finally sitting down next to her mother. "But why are we here?"

"Amy," her mother chastised.

"Now, now, its alright," Gaige said, channeling her father right then. "Actually, I appreciate the bluntness, so let's get right to the point, shall we?" Grabbing the weapon case, she moved her coffee to the side and set the case on the table. Opening it, she turned it to them and showed them a robotic arm and leg along with three needles filled with a red liquid. "These are why we are here. Robert, these are your new arm and leg if you want them."

"...I want my old arm and leg back," he muttered, pulling in on himself.

"Hun, we talked about this," Jessica told him.

"Well, how about you hear me out first," Gaige offered. "First off, these limbs have a micro thermal-generator build into them. They will never need fuel to work because they will run off your body heat. Mine does the same. Secondly, these will attach directly to your nerves, so they will work just like your old arm and leg did, except once you are adjusted to them, you'll be able to break bricks with them."

"...That's kinda cool," Robert admitted.

"Oh, very, especially once the repulsor cannon is installed in the hand but that will come later. Lastly, these will never need replaced nor trips to a mechanic to fix."

"How is that possible," Anise asked.

"These were made to be a near exact copy of a humanoid's limbs, ma'am. As Robert grows, it will take iron he digest and use it to repair and grow just like his flesh arm will do the same with proteins and calcium. He will of course need to eat more iron than he already does but I believe that is a small price over all. Should large damage happen though, there is a port in the 'deltoid' of the arm, here, and the calf of the leg, here, that you can put raw iron or steel to repair it within hours."

"What's that," Amy asked, pointing to the red needle.

"That? Well, there is a long, boring technical name for it but I just call it an insta-health. It causes cells to immediately start osmosis and... It heals wound, cuts, even mend bones and replaces flesh in minutes."

"Couldn't that give me back my arm and leg," Robert asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not, its been too long for a wound that involves bones," Gaige told him. "I put it in the kit just in case attaching these hurts."

"Why haven't I heard of this before," Jessica asked, worriedly.

"Because its new and is still in review with the council," Gaige replied with a frown. "They know what it does and how but they'll probably still spend years debating releasing it to the public unless..." She rubbed her fingers together and the mothers nodded, getting the hint. Bribes. "Well, regardless, it works fine... But just to show you," she rolled up her right sleeve and went to the sink. "Um, sorry if this disturbs you," she said before cutting her arm real quick. Taking the third needle, she injected it in her arm and showed them the wound sealing instantly.

"Wow," Amy and Robert both said.

"Yeah, it will make medikits outdated," Gaige told them. "Fortunately, I doubt we'll need both if Robert agrees."

"...I'm sorry, but is this by chance an experiment?"

"Oh no ma'am," Gaige told Mrs. Bright. "If you tell me to leave or Robert agrees, you'll never have to hear from us again. As I said, these limbs are meant to be as lifelike and maintenance free as possible. Which can't be done with the owner being poked and prodded for the next five, ten years. Those trials are complete."

Jessica nodded and closed her eyes, relief covering her face. Gaige could see how worried she was about her son being a cyborg and having to deal with maintenance and repair for the rest of his life. It didn't take a genius to tell that they could barely afford it as is. "What would you like to do, honey?"

Robert looked it over before down to his own arm. "...Alright," he almost whispered.

"Do we need to go to a hospital?"

"Oh no, this can be done right here. Just have Robert change into shorts and a T shirt and it'll be done in a minute after we remove the old limbs."

—oo000oo—

Robert winced as the limbs dug into his body by themselves but was surprised it didn't hurt as much as he feared. Yet Gaige still gave him the stim to help. "Okay and done. Robert, can you please raise both arms. ...Okay, now touch each finger to your thumbs...good. Now your feet. Move them left and right... Now wiggle your toes... Okay, it looks like you're good to go. Just spend some time practicing with them like you did before and you'll get used to them in no time. Bro-robo-fist," she said, holding out her metal hand for a fist bump.

Robert did and looked down, a bit surprised. "I felt that."

"Yes, we try our best to make it as lifelike as possible. I hope you'll be running around like you did before very soon." Gaige stood up and headed for the table. Picking up her coffee, she finished it.

"I can't thank you enough," Jessica said to her.

"It was nothing, truly. Just one person helping another."

"You... Still, thank you."

Gaige set the mug down and reach for the case. "Miss Crescent," Anise Fenrus stopped her. "When you said the insta-health could heal flesh wounds, could it heal old ones?" Gaige looked to her and set the final syringe on the table before closing the case and nodding.

"Re-open the wound and it will get everything else straight. Have a good day, all of you," Gaige said before going to the door. "Now you just have to figure out if I was serious or not about that repulsor cannon," she left with the joke, getting a smile from the grateful mothers. There wasn't one but now that she thought of it, it didn't sound like a bad idea. "Maybe I should make one for myself," she muttered, holding up her metal hand to look at it, just picturing her shooting lasers from the palm of her hand.

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: See you Space Cowboy


	5. I Got Myself a Puppy

_**Or 'Should We Make the Wizard Cry Before We Kill Him?'**_

—oo000oo—

_I don't care! I love it! I don't care, I love it, I love it!_

Gaige bobbed her head with the tune as she cranked the last bolt into place of her Enforcer. Wasn't a major adjustment, she was just removing the dust engine for a Maliwan Thunder-drum, 3800 series generator. It was old, at least sixteen years, but they were the right size and the things never went bad. The original vehicles they were part of lost their electrical before a problem happened with the generator. "Alright, let's give it a try." Climbing on, she started the turbines and began easing it through their paces. When she sat it back down, she began to adjust the power regulator.

"So, this is what you've been doing," a voice said from her workshop door. Nearly jumping, Greed was in her hand before she turned around.

"Damn it, Axton, knock!"

"Hahaha, sorry," he replied as he walked in.

And in followed Tina. "Whoa, shorty, this thing is awesome," she nearly shouted as she jumped on the Enforcer. (Not so) Tiny Tina had certainly grown since she helped them deal with Jack, she was about the same size as that Ruby girl she met a month ago, almost. She wore a white t-shirt that was covered by armor that appeared to be made from scrap. With shoulder pads, one being yellow with spikes. At her waist was a bunny on her belt, opposite a magazine pouch. Black cargo pants bloused into heavy, combat boots. A headband with rabbit ears on her forehead and a pair of heavy gloves. With grenades strapped to her right because Tina wouldn't be Tina without them.

"Not until I'm satisfied and digitize it, Tina, you're sitting on the original."

"For real?"

"Yes."

"And what was that out there," Axton asked.

"The guy is Adam Taurus, racist, murderer, terrorist. You know, like Jack, just without a multi-trillion dollar budget to kill people with."

"And why isn't he dead?"

"Because he works for someone who is coordinating all of it and he hasn't told me where yet. I figure a few days in the sun with no water will fix that."

"If not, we can just beat the slamma-jamma out of him," Tina said excitedly as she looked over the Enforcer and found the starter. Pressing it, nothing happened. "WHAT!?"

"Keyfob, Tina," Gaige told her and she knelt back down and continued her adjustments.

"...And what about the rest of that out there," Axton ask.

"Huh? Oh... Well, what am I supposed to do with a few million lien that I can't spend anywhere else in the universe?" She was talking about the Bullhead parked on the platform. "Besides, I'm tired of our enemies flying but not us. How is that fair?"

"Weapons on it yet?"

"Plan on changing out the dust firing machine gun for a Vladof vehicle mount. Just haven't had the shop create one yet. The harder part will be an engine that can run it. Everything on this planet runs on that eridium I told you about, Dust the locals call it. And the process of refining it is so imperfect that its actually consumed in use. They use it like fuel, if it wasn't so plentiful it would be ridiculous." Gaige stood up and pushed Tina off. Sitting down, she started the engine and went into a spin one way and then the other.

"Oh, I want one of those," Tina said from the floor.

Finally happy, Gaige sat it down on the digitizer and placed the keyfob atop it before activating the machine. After the Enforcer had vanished, Gaige went to her console and put her metal hand into an interface. Four slots showed appeared on the screen. Deathtrap took the first, Deathray and Fix-it the second, her bike on the third, and now the Enforcer on the fourth. "Done, Tina, go ahead and digistruct one."

"Sweet!" Tina tapped on the digistruct console and quickly formed a hot rod red Enforcer that she jumped on and flew off out over the water with.

"Tina, has the weapon system connected to your ECHO yet," Gaige asked her over said device.

"_Let me check," _a cryo rocket shot from the bike and hit the water, creating a small iceburg, _"I think so. You do some fine work, shorty!"_

"I aim to please," she said, grabbing a towel and wiping her hands off. "So, want a status report," Gaige asked Axton.

"Would like one, yeah."

"So, I haven't found the vault yet but I have possibly narrowed down which continent, the one that looks like a dragon, the Grimmlands."

"That's good."

"Oh, it gets better. I suspect that if that vault isn't already open then another has been and whatever was inside wasn't friendly and is on the loose. It recognizes the Vault Symbol. And unless I miss my guess, it is what is controlling the Grimm, the monsters of this world."

"Joy."

"Oh, it still gets better, my employer that has me hunting down those terrorist has started spying on me and wants me to meet them today or tomorrow at the auditorium of his combat school. An auditorium that was build to contain combat."

"Betrayal?"

"More than likely."

"How do you want to play this?"

Gaige sighed and said, "How about we give him the benefit of the doubt. You follow me, I go in first and then you two come in guns at the ready. Speaking of which, what do you have on you?"

"Nuke'em, Hammer Buster, Conference Call, the Ogre, HoT, Bonus Package, and the Legendary Soldier," he said, flicking his thumb at the camera on his shoulder. "Tina has her Boom Puppy, Teapot, Miss Moxxi's Creamer, Fire Storm, she's having fun with that by the way."

"What can I say, I got the inspiration from her Bunkers and Badasses games."

"Yeah, and the Swordspolsion." The two of them chuckled at that. Get Torque and Tina together and the weird and awesome happens. But mostly weird, like a shotgun that shoots out a sword that explodes into smaller swords that also explode. "1340 Shield is doing pretty well with her, kinda scary how well they get along."

"_AHAHA, DIE DARKNESS BIRD!"_

"_What he said,"_ Tina shouted.

"And that sums up what I've dealt with this past month. That and trying to keep Enrique from eating all the food. And the engines. Tina does have a fourth weapon she doesn't want to show me yet though."

"You know why?"

"Actually, I do, her first 'mega badass boss' solo kill was a few weeks ago and got it then. I think she's waiting to show us all at once or a good moment to show it off."

"So what is it?"

Axton chuckled and dropped his head. "Well, I can certainly state I have no idea why she is grabbing so much rocket ammo right now. Nor have I noticed distinct pattern of a Vladof rocket launcher under the sheet she's been using to hide it."

"Tina with two rocket launchers? This world is not ready for that...and yet I want to see that happen so much." She tapped her ear and said, "Tina, a half hour and then we have some things to do."

"_You're bringing me down!"_

"If I was bringing you down, I wouldn't mention the boost is on the underside of the left..."

"_WWWWHHHHHOOOOAAAAA-YEAH!"_

"Ah, you found the booster." Grabbing her mug, she filled it with coffee. "Something I should state, the people of this world are fond of overly complicated weapons that transform from melee to distance and back again. Giant scythes that turn into machine guns and sniper rifles. Bracers with shotguns. Have a few swords for Zer0 to take a look at."

"Anything worth keeping?"

"Nothing besides those swords. Won't lie, some are nice but they don't hold a candle to some of the weapons we've gotten."

"Well, we are armed enough to start and finish a war and some of them are just ridiculous."

"Like the Conference Call?"

"Yeah."

"...Let me call Oz, tell him I'll meet him in an hour and a half. More than enough time for him to set up whatever he needs to do. I'll hook you up to the Fast Travel while I do." Axton nodded his thanks.

—oo000oo—

Gaige pat Enrique on the back and threw him a flank of beef before doing the same to Jean. Looking at the kraggon, she still could not figure out just _how_ Tina tamed the normally feral creature. Then again, her and Mordecai have been spending some time together so maybe she picked things up? The blue kraggon growled in appreciation, she hoped, as it tore into the meat, letting her connect both of their fast travel emitters to her network. This way Tina can just call them when she needs them while in Vale. Hopefully, she would do that instead of her normal technique of just riding around on one of them, usually Enrique. Jean, being made of rock, is a touch uncomfortable...not that Gaige knew from experience. She would never do something as childish as ride a kraggon...

"Gaige."

"I never rode him!"

"What," Axton asked.

"What?"

"...Okay, everything ready?"

"Yeah."

"Sweet," Tina shouted, running in. "Just let me get them off their chains and..."

"Sorry, Tina," Gaige interrupted. "They can't make their appearance until we're ready to let bullets fly."

"What!?" Tina's face looked so betrayed. "You want me to leave my puppies behind?"

"No, of course not," Gaige dismissed. "But people never have the same looks on their faces when they don't see the skag and kraggon coming before being eaten. You don't want to miss that, do you?"

"I...don't. Fiiiine, but I'm feeding at least one of these noobs to them!"

"Acceptable. Remember, don't be seen."

"Jawohl!" Tina saluted before hopping on her Enforcer and driving through the Fast Travel with it.

"Me and Tina will be ready, just don't die before we come in," Axton stated before he followed. Gaige nodded and sighed, checking the time to see she still had thirty minutes.

—oo000oo—

Tina set the Enforcer down on a roof and got off, giving a quick look around and saw that she wasn't seen. Giving a thumbs up to Axton as he flew by, she made for the door and started down the stairs. Opening the door on the ground floor, Tina saw she was in a cafeteria filled with students. "Yuk, school uniforms," and with that, she started for the door. She was almost there when she smelled it. That scent and aroma, there was only one thing that could give that! She looked around and on the nearest table, she saw it. "Target: located. Identity: Chocolate Chip Cookies!" Walking over, she said, "Hope you don't mind if I take some of these..." Only for a girl in a red cloak to take the plate of hot goods and held them out of her reach. Now Tina found herself in a bind. She was supposed to remain inconspicuous yet she was being denied her cookies.

"Great Oum, what are you wearing," this girl with painfully white hair asked.

"Uh, combat clothes, had a test just before coming here. Now if I could just get some of those noms..." She reached again and Little Red Riding Hood once again moved it out of the way. _'No guns, no explosions, no guns, no explosions.'_

"Yeah, that's no going to happen," the blond with the heavy rack told her with a laugh. "Ruby won't even share with me sometimes and I'm her sister!"

"Besides, you could have anything on the menu," the black haired one with cat like eyes offered, "why cookies."

Tina looked to her and in her most serious voice said, "Because real badasses eat chocolate chip cookies."

The girl, Ruby, blinked in surprise at that but smiled and held the tray one. "Just three."

"...Fiiine," she whined, grabbing them and quickly ate one. "Mmm, so goooood."

"Aren't they," Ruby asked while eating one too.

"Good graces, there's two of them," Snooty-Whitey muttered, palming her face.

"Who are you, I haven't seen you here before," Top Heavy said.

"Me, I'm the wild child, the queen of obscene, that girl that will make you hurl, Tiny Tina! ...It just isn't the same with no explosions." She said that last part while dropping her head in despair.

"I'm sorry, whats so tiny about you," asked the Kitten, looking to her chest.

"What!? No, I'm still smol! I can still ride Enrique! I'm only fifteen," she denied. She looked at them curiously while a glass and a fork broke in the hands of two of them while the cheek of another began to twitch. Ruby looked blissfully unaware. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry, you're fifteen?"

"Yeah. Oh, I get it, you're wondering why I'm here if I'm fifteen."

"Yeah, that's what we're wondering," Top Heavy muttered, looking down.

"At least I'm not the only one," Ruby said happily.

"Sorry, I'm actually a bounty slash vault hunter," Tina said happily, making all of them blink in surprise once more.

"Wait, a bounty hunter? ...Do you know about a hunter named Gaige Crescent," Kitten asked.

"Boo? Yeah, me and her are tight! She made me these awesome robot things that I'm absolutely not to ever mention!"

"...What do they do," Ruby asked.

"They're robotic unicorns and pegasi," Tina said happily.

That got Top Heavy holding her gut, laughing. "Oh that's rich! Red has a thing for ponies! Hold my unicorn while I grab my shotgun! Bwahahaha!"

"That does kinda ruin what I saw of her," Ruby muttered.

"Well, I wasn't going to tell you about the dooms-day-devices or whateva. She might just kill me for what I have said," Tina said with a shrug. "Regardless, gotta go, got a meeting to get to. Ba-bye!"

"Bye Tina," Ruby called with a wave before she looked to the rest of her team. "So what were you upset about?"

"A fifteen year old should not be almost as big as your sister," Blake told her.

"But she was only a little taller than I am."

Walking outside, Tina walked of the large building up ahead. When she was almost to the door, she looked up and spotted Axton on the roof, watching for her. Giving an imperceptible nod, she walked in the door and followed the signs for the auditorium. Up ahead, she saw two professors talking to one another a moment before they turned to her. "I'm sorry, Miss, but I'm afraid you can't enter," the one like a walrus told her.

"But I have a combat exam in twenty minutes."

"Must-not-have-gotten-the-word," the lankier one stated in a one long word. "All activities within the auditorium have been canceled for the day."

"Oh...I already have my weapon," Tina told them, motioning to the Teapot on her hip. "Should I return it to my locker?" The two glanced to each other and frowned.

"Very well but be quick."

"Thank you," happily before running pass them. "Running, running, running, I'm running over here, run, run, ru-run, ruuun." Once she rounded a corner and was out of sight, she slowed down and walked the rest of the way to the locker room. Inside, she went to the power box and hooked up the machine Gaige gave her to it. When she activated it, all of the lockers made a beep as they all locked down. Next, she went back to the doors and placed another device, this one wrapping around the handles and locking them. Finally, she pulled out her toys. With the door, she took a foam can and sprayed clay explosives on it before connecting it to the lock. If it failed, the door would blow. Walking away, she threw mines up on the ceiling, pointing at the floors in front of the doors. Finally, she placed unfolding rocket turrets aimed at the choke points. "Gonna blow stuff up and make people die. This is Tina, I'm all set in the locker room."

"_Gotcha, Tina, I'm set here,"_ Axton told her. _"Do a weapons check, make sure you're ready."_

"Jawohl," Tina replied, grabbing the magazines for her Teapot and making sure they're full followed by her Boom Puppy. Finally, she grabbed her first rocket launcher, Miss Moxxi's Creamer. Gaige liked Moxxi weapons so Tina figured she'd pick one up too. Her final weapon was ready though she hadn't used it yet. Setting everything back together, she waited, grinning as her fingers flicked the cover of a detonator.

—oo000oo—

Axton landed on the roof of the auditorium and moved to the edge, keeping low. So far there was no indication that anyone spotted either him or Tina but the Hammer Buster was in his hands at the ready just in case. After a few minutes, Tina finally appeared, meandering into the building so not to draw any unwanted attention. Seeing her nod, he backed away and slipped into a maintenance hatch. A building like this with its purpose had to have a lot of them so that any damage could be repaired quickly. Gaige knew this so she had stolen the blueprints and sent a copy to him. Moving through the tunnel, he come out at the rafters of the main room. Slowly walking along it, he placed a few of his turrets before placing explosives on the screen in the center. Arming it just like Tina had told him to, he got off the deathtrap and set a few more turrets.

"_This is Tina, I'm all set in the locker room."_

"Gotcha Tina, I'm set here. Do a weapons check, make sure you're ready." Finding a stable platform he wouldn't be noticed from, he did the same. _'Man, does this remind me of old times. Like that job on Crymia Six. Heh, Becky was really worked up after that one.'_ He pat his personal turret pod and said, "Ready to work honey? Gaige, the Mad Hatter and March Hare are ready for the tea party, we just need our guest Alice to arrive."

"_Good, Gaige out."_

—oo000oo—

Taking a deep breath, Gaige walked through the school grounds. Actually, this was the first time she had been here, it was very nice. Too bad it would likely be a smoking crater when they were done with it. Hopefully the kids wouldn't do something stupid like get involved. ...Ah, who is she kidding, with her luck that is exactly what they are going to do. "A very merry unbirthday to you," she muttered. Going down the hall, she saw two teachers knocking on the door.

"Young lady, I need you to come out now."

"_What!? I'm busy,"_ Tina shouted back, the sound of running water coming from the the locker room.

"You-need-to-get-out!"

"_I'm taking a shower, do you know how grimey I feel!?"_

"We have to get in there!"

"_Help, the Walrus and Carpenter are trying to see me naked!"_

"What!? I would never!"

"Rightly, so! Despite-her-physical-growth, she-is-much-too-young-for-me!"

"_Wait, what did you just call me! I am _not_ big!"_ Ah Tina, still trying to hold onto that Tiny title.

"I guess this way is blocked," Gaige said to them. "I think the other way to the combat ring is that way," she asked, getting both teachers to freeze and look at her.

"Uh, yes it is, Miss..."

"Now, now, no need to play coy," Gaige said to him the big man. "I know Ozpin said I would be the Teaching assistant today."

"Right, Miss-Crescent," the thin one said, coming up to her. "I-am-Doctor-Oobleck."

"Oobleck, like the non-Newtonian fluid that will harden under force but liquid without?"

The man blinked at her, rather surprised. "I'm sorry, did you say non-Newtonian?"

"Yes I did, Doctor. May I ask in which field you received your doctorate? Life sciences like agricultural, biological or medical, engineering, computer and information, mathematics, Astronomy, Atmospheric, Chemistry, Geological, Physics, Oceanography, Psychology, History, Letters, Education, Business, Communication, or maybe a field I haven't listed."

Both Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port blinked in surprise before Oobleck said, "History and Philosophy."

"Hmm, not bad. Mechanical Engineering and Astro Physics," she said while holding out her hand. Slowly, Oobleck shook it. "My teachers said my being a hunter is a waste but I believe I have found a good use of my intellect. Robots that defy gravity are not easily made."

Oobleck stared at her a moment before pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Yes surely that could not be the case, any action taken by these machines would cause them to go flying off otherwise."

"True but it can be countered by effectively creating a new point of gravity directly underneath it so the machine would be standing on something that isn't there. In layman's terms, defying gravity."

Oobleck covered his mouth and rubbed his chin at the implications of what she said. "I hesitate to say this but could not a propeller or booster engine achieve the same effect without needing to rewrite the laws of the universe?"

"Yet a booster engine would require a fuel source that could potentially detonate while also raising the need of engine strength to keep them afloat. In practicality, my machines are more efficient and capable than drones or androids."

"Oobleck," Port said, trying to get his attention.

"What is the strength of the power supply needed to do that and run the machines?"

"Not nearly so much as you would think. These drones I build run on only seven point five three kilojoules when in standard flight mode and nine point three repeating for the combat oriented drone and eleven point one six eight eight for the repair function on the other."

"Doctor," Port tried again.

"Only that little? You could collect that from the sun with only the average yard of a bright day in ten seconds."

"My robot takes more energy but has significantly more powerful capabilities, the least of which is a laser."

"What output?"

"A custom build, five thousand, five hundred watt capable of reaching a heat output of over seven thousand degrees. I wanted to go more powerful but I had neither the resources nor the design when I made him and now I find myself busy upgrading more important components."

"And how old were you when you made this?"

"I started when I was seventeen but I didn't finish until I was eighteen."

"I'm impressed. I would love to look over your work sometime."

"Doctor Oobleck."

"And I am further impressed that you understood my name, not many actually know about that."

"Yes, simple science it may be, wet cornstarch is always interesting. Especially when holding up the weight of a grown adult."

"You two keep using words I know but I'm fairly certain you're not speaking English anymore," Professor Port suddenly interrupted. "Doctor, don't we have work to do?"

Oobleck sighed and nodded. "Yes, quite right. Doctor Crescent, I do hope we can speak at greater length at another time."

"Just Gaige, please, I find Doctor a bit of a stuffy title."

"Hah, you couldn't be more different from Doctor Oobleck," Professor Port exclaimed, patting his partner on the shoulder. "He always insist that it is Doctor, not Professor. 'I didn't earn that PhD for nothing'."

"If you don't mind, I think I will keep using Doctor, for one so young, it is quite an achievement."

Gaige frowned but nodded. "Very well, I can't stop you if you truly desire to do so. Have a good day, Doctor, Professor."

Oobleck watched her go and sighed. "Brilliant mind that one, I can already see it."

"Aye, too bad she is likely allied with the enemy."

"I fear if that is the case because if it is, then I suspect she is ready for any..." He looked back to the door and swallowed. Knocking on it, he asked, "Young lady, what is your name?"

"_Tina, Tina Bradsberry!"_

"Port, try to find out if there is a student by that...name," he said before grabbing his scroll and noticing the message for everyone to get in position. "We're out of time, we need to get in position."

—oo000oo—

Gaige walked out into the arena where Ozpin stood waiting for her. "The Wonderful Wizard of Ozpin, to what do I owe this most auspicious of meetings? After all, we both know you don't actually want me to give a demonstration. By the way, that is a very nice hologram, I almost couldn't tell the difference." She was referring to the one of Ozpin so as that the man wouldn't be here himself.

"Truly no getting anything around you," Oz said with a sigh. Suddenly, a different hologram dropped to reveal that the stands had three dozen hunters in them all pointing weapons at her.

"...Wow, I am actually impressed, you nearly have enough here to do the job," Gaige told him. "Hunters from Atlas, Vale, Vacou and Mistral, and not one of them has their scroll on them. Not even an Atlas Knight."

"You would be able to detect them," the hologram of Ozpin stated. "As for the Knights, I have little doubt you would be able to turn those to your own purposes."

"Hmm, so...what now?"

"Now you surrender," a new hologram said as it appeared. It was General Ironwood.

"You must be joking," Gaige replied as she started pacing in a circle, looking them all over. "I have the I.Q. to make your greatest scientist seem like morons, enough weapons and bullets to win a war, and two days to prepare for this betrayal. Why would I surrender when I hold all the cards?"

"What did you do," Ozpin demanded.

"Well, maybe I just finished the plan White Fang had, placed a large enough bomb under Vale that when it detonates will completely destroy the city... No, too brutish. Maybe I left a virus in the CCT to take complete control of the information network of Remnant... Not elegant enough. Maybe I spent time placing bombs in key locations of Beacon academy... That sounds more like something I would be willing to do," she said with a smile, coming to a stop some distance from them.

"You're bluffing," Ironwood accused her. To which her smile grew.

"Why don't we get down to the serious questions," Gaige told them. "Why Oz? I played it straight with you, why the betrayal?"

"Because you're not who you say," Ozpin replied.

"You hired me to deal with the White Fang, I have been. To hunt Roman Torchwich, I am. I fail to see how I have done something wrong."

"You hacked into the CCTs and my ICC," Ironwood spat.

"To be fair, I hacked into your computer because you hacked into mine first and I am a firm believer that turnabout is fair play."

Ozpin motioned to Ironwood to stall his reply and asked a question. "And your involvement with Salem?"

"Who? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I doubt that," Ironwood growled.

"I don't care."

Whatever Ironwood was going to say was stopped by Ozpin. "Let us say we believe that, that doesn't change something. Someone like you can't go unnoticed in the world today yet for all my looking, you seemed to have dropped out of the sky."

"So?"

"I want to know who you are and where you are from, the truth this time."

"No."

"Do you think this is a game?"

"Oh very much so," Gaige replied happily. At hearing some banging, she looked to the door to the locker room and said, "Might want them to stop, if they break through that door, they will find a nasty surprise waiting for them. I have little intention of cooperating, Ozpin. Why should I? I don't trust the General and I clearly shouldn't have trusted you."

"If you are a friend then this can all be put behind us with an apology," Ozpin offered her.

Gaige gave a mirthless smile and shook her head. "I'm not sure if you actually believe that or not. I am the most technologically advance person on this planet and a few others besides, Ozpin. The moment I am in custody, the General or someone like him will begin ripping apart everything I have in the hopes of making it their own. I assume the General is the one that got that Eridium sliver, oh, sorry, the refined Dust ingot slice, but not one of you primitives can figure out how it was made, can you? Even if we all agree this is some kind of mistake, once I am in your hands, someone will try to coerce me to divulge what I know and then I'll be tossed aside without my possessions or an apology."

"I would never allow that."

"What you would allow is irrelevant, it is what would happen," Gaige told him. "I can see it in the general's eyes, he wants everything of mine. The only reason he hasn't forced the situation is because of you. And the reason you don't is because you can strongly guess the price of such an attempt. The first and foremost of which is that the chances of me surrendering is none, zip, zilch, the same chances of your grandfather's grandfather's grandfather coming to see you today. Let me show you number two." She held out her hand and formed a grenade. "This is a Mirv that will explode with the force to destroy you, your dog, the small building that you are in, and your car on the street. It is tied to my heart. If it stops beating, this bomb starts booming. So even if you do somehow kill me and try to use that chance to take away my tech, all you will get is scrap." Gaige was snarling by now.

"You are far less civil now than before," Ozpin noted.

"Before, we were discussing business as equals. Now you are just another traitorous employer that I will have to kill. You don't actually think you are the first to do this to me, do you?"

Ozpin looked her in the eyes, long and hard, before saying, "I do believe you."

"Well, its a touch late for that," Gaige stated. "Needless to say, the contract between us is terminated. Now, what happens next is up to you. I can walk out of here or you can do something stupid and start this dance."

"Easy answer," Ironwood spoke up, not believing her at how dangerous she is. "Gaige Crescent, you are under arrest for sedition, criminal hacking, possession of illegal weapons..."

"This is Vale, General," Gaige interrupted. "Ozpin has to say it as you are outside your jurisdiction."

Ironwood growled and shouted, "Seize her!" Some of the Atlas fired but to everyone's shock, even Gaige, the bullets bounced off a barrier that had been raised. And the only one that could do so was Ozpin. Gaige slowly eased the Greed back to her waist and turned back to the man, smiling while Ironwood gaped. "What are you doing!?"

"I must apologize, Miss Crescent, I came to the wrong conclusion about you and that is something that doesn't happen often. I believed you working for someone that is an enemy to myself and the world at large."

"You already know I don't work for White Fang."

"No, someone far worse than them. I would like to come clean with you about it, if you will tolerate my presence long enough for me to correct this most grievous of errors."

"Uh huh. Everyone says it was a mistake when facing death."

"You'll find that death is something I would welcome after my life," Ozpin told her. "Everyone stand down. Please, come to my tower," he said but for Gaige to raise Greed up and rest that hand on her shoulder as she looked to the still gathered hunters. "...Disperse, all of you. Now."

"Ozpin, what are you doing," Ironwood demanded.

"Doing what I should have done before, 'play it straight', I think you said."

Gaige watched him closely and considered what to do, this was something she hadn't done before. It had always come down to shooting and desperate pleading. Sure, it could still be a trap but he was asking her to leave and go into his school where the students could still be found. The whole point of doing it here was to keep it contained where she wouldn't notice it first. _"How do you want to handle this," _Axton asked, still unnoticed, now over the gathered hunters that were slowly leaving with some grumblings.

"...I'm not disarming," Gaige stated.

"That's fine," Ozpin replied.

"And I'm not going anywhere alone," she further told him.

"...You're friends are here, Mister Axton and Miss Tina, aren't they," Ozpin suddenly realized, glancing around. Axton took that as his que to move over the arena and drop down. He landed with what Tina called the Superhero landing, bending his knees but not buckling. Standing back to his full height, he raised a finger to his ear piece.

"Stand down, Tina, no one is dying today."

"WHAT!?" Tina ran out of the locker room with the Teapot in one hand and the Creamer on her shoulder. "I was promised explosions!"

"We'll take you grimm hunting once we're done here," Gaige tried to placate.

"No! You said death, murder, mayhem, and that you would drink a beer from the wizard's skull!"

"I never said that, that's Salvatore's thing," Gaige denied. "That's it Tina, you're going on decaf."

"I WILL KILL YOU ALL!" Tina raised the detonator and pressed the button but nothing happened, she was using Gaige's explosives after all. "No! Damn you!"

"_You will rue this day,"_ 1340 added, unhappy at being denied.

"Axton, fry the spare turrets, we don't need them. Ozpin, you'll need to get a clean up crew here, the rafters and the locker room are covered in bombs. And Tina, eat a cookie or a piece of chocolate."

"Not gonna help with you blue balling me like this," she shouted, dropping unhappily to the floor.

"Who knows, Tina, maybe Ozpin can actually do something to fix this and if he does, I'll make you my teaching assistant. How would you like to have students that need an attitude adjustment take your puppies for a walk?" Tina tried hard to not smile at that.

"No good enough."

"Through a monster ridden forest," Gaige offered.

"...Maybe, but better get to shoot something today!"

Ozpin watched her through this and said, "I believe you mentioned how Tina is better than she used to be?"

"I know, right," Gaige replied, leading the way to the tower.

—oo000oo—

Weapons never put down, Gaige, Tina, and Axton came to the top of the clocktower where they found Goodwitch looking less than pleased and Ironwood almost shouting at Ozpin. "Ah, Miss Crescent. Miss Tina and Mister Axton, I have actually looked forward to meeting you."

"Let's get to the point Ozpin, what's going to keep me from killing you?"

"The truth, as I said. For which, our destination has not actually been reached." Ozpin pressed a button on his desk and a door to the side opened to reveal another elevator. "Tell me, Miss Crescent, what is your favorite fairy tail?"

"This is a terrible idea," Ironwood stated as he too got on.

"So you have said," Ozpin replied, walking into the elevator. "But then, maybe if I had just come out and said that I needed Miss Crescent's technological aid to save a life, this might be over already as well." By then, everyone had gotten on and it was on the way down.

"What does fairy tales have to do with anything," Axton asked.

"Have any of you heard the story of the Four Seasons?"

"No."

"No."

"I have," Tina said happily. "Four young women help a grumpy old man and are given great power for it."

"That about sums it up and it isn't just a story, it really happened and there is more too it. This power they each gained didn't die with them, it..."

"It transfers from one young woman to another whenever the current wielder dies," Axton finished. "We have ones called Sirens. Four seasons and six sirens..." Axton swallowed the lump that formed, it was becoming more and more important this planet be left alone. They needed to find the vault quickly and make sure it gave no signal for anyone else to find. What really worried him though was that these four were focused solely around that vault and the monster that came from it. "Sounds to me like the old man in question was an Eridian," he said to his partners.

"Brought, not drifted," Tina muttered, about how these humans got on this planet. "Is there any record on when the Grimm first appeared?"

"They've always been here."

"So humans were brought about to fight them," Gaige muttered, getting confused looks from the three Remnantians.

"What are you three talking about," Ironwood demanded. "What's an Eridian?"

"They are the ones that make the Vaults I told you about and made Eridium and Dust," Gaige told them, tapping her belt buckle. "There's something that I have been suspecting, Ozpin, ever since Qrow and I went to that ruin with the massive Vault Symbol on the ground. The Vault may already be open and whatever creature controls the Grimm came out of it."

"What makes you so sure there is something that controls them," Goodwitch asked.

"Because it spoke to me, challenging me to come and destroy it."

"Did it say where it was?"

Gaige leaned back a bit, "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"...She's had many names over the millennium, the one she uses now is Salem," Ozpin told them. "The schools, they were founded for the sole purpose to create a team strong enough to kill her. I almost thought I had one such team, team STRQ, before it collapsed and Summer died. How many Vaults have you opened?"

"Oh, must've been...twenty one between the three of us," Gaige said, looking to her partners for confirmation.

"Twenty three, now," Axton corrected. "Of which eleven were creatures that needed killing."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tina interrupted. "You mean to tell me that we are about to fight an entire planet's worth of monsters the Eridians themselves feared enough to lock away? I am slightly terrified and aroused by that."

"Glad you think so, Tina," Gaige said as the elevator opened to reveal the a large room with closed circuit android guards. A lot of guards. "...So, what is this, Oz, because this security is impressing even me. I'm at thirty seconds in hacking these." Walking by one of the android, she raised a fist and it did a fist bump with her. "Don't even get me talking about how long it took to add that subroutine. Flat out embarrassing."

"More embarrassing than actually adding it," Goodwitch asked.

"You kidding, this is krunk," Tina nearly shouted, doing the pong bump with one

"These, Miss Crescent are the guards to the most import item in all of Vale. One of the maidens," Ozpin told them, pointing to the machine at the end. Coming to it, he said, "This is Amber, a few months ago she was attacked and now she is dying. The most advance technology in the world available to me can only stave if off, not actually save her. Think you can do something different?"

Gaige stepped forward and looked her over real quick, her echo forming a health bar for her and it was not good. "Axton, one of the insta-healths in her IV."

"On it." He stepped to the machine while pulling out the red vial and was about to put it in the liquid when his arm stopped moving and a gun barrel was placed to his head. Looking over and finding Goodwitch was holding her arm out and somehow stopping him, Ironwood was pressing the pistol to him. "You wanted us to help, let us. The worse we can do is speed up her death which is coming anyway."

"Glynda, James, let them try," Ozpin told them and slowly they stepped back. A few moments later, Amber's heart rate went up before her vitals all normalized and even brainwave activity increased. "Fascinating." With Gaige, she summoned Fix-it and activated his medical protocols she had gotten from Wilhelm's Saint. It began scanning her while Gaige looked at the machine itself.

"This tech isn't nearly good enough. Tina, I'm going to need parts and raw materials."

"Sure, what do you need, my hoe?"

"Either twelve pounds of tech parts from the Rig including an Hyperion induction coil, a multiphasic transducer, and three boxes of self sealing stem bolts just to get this anywhere near where it needs to be. Or a temporary fast travel station so we can get her to an actually medical station. ...Got the complete scans. Okay, someone tried to syphon the energy out of her and her body can't compensate for the lost. Can't say I ever heard someone trying that with a siren."

"Yeah well that's to be expected since a Siren usually rips space in half before you can try and rarely get in fights with Eridian era monsters that are smart enough to do it," Axton stated while Tina began tinkering around with a box. "...Think 'Angel' will work?"

"Did you have to put it like that," Gaige grumbled while stepping back. "Theoretically, a direct infusion of Eridium could possibly restore the balance of any Eridian granted ability, at least temporarily but I'm not an Eridian/Siren expert."

"I'll get Tannis and Lilith on the line," he said, stepping back and giving them a call.

"One of you three make yourselves useful and send a complete datapacket to Axton's ECHO about Maidens. All of it, if we're going to do this we need data, information, so we don't end up turning her into some kind of monstrous abomination."

"That's possible," Ozpin asked.

"With Eridium, anything is possible. As you will see when you meet Tina's puppies."

"Fast travel is almost complete," Tina told them. "It'll burn out after first use though."

"Only going to need one use."

"Gaige, Tannis says an infusion might work but it will need to be in a 2:1 ratio with her element of dust," Axton suddenly shouted. "And Lilith says that while it will heal the damage, that benefit will expire a few days after the injection ends and her condition will resume. She also says that we can't just set her up with a weak intravenous because while she's conscious she'll be able to feel where her missing piece is. …Okay, Tannis is now talking about pizzas...she's back on track. Liquid Eridium-fire dust, one and a half liters over a week so we don't poison her. Tannis and Lilith are arguing. … Then an Eridium/Dust adrenal shot, one eighty CCs, to the heart to get her ready. We'll have three to five days to find the person her missing piece has been stored in and then kill them before Amber falls back in a coma."

"Got it," Gaige stated. "Ozpin, we're taking Amber where we can help her properly before we wake her."

When Ironwood protested, Ozpin spoke over him. "I understand you need to but there is only so much I'm willing to do. But if you let us come..."

"Us, no," Gaige denied. "One and not Ironwood. You can bring your scroll but you won't get signal. Its location is private and it will stay that way, thank you."

"I am not going to let you-" What Ironwood was going to say was cut off when Gaige spun around with Greed in her hands pointed right at his head. When the Knights began to react, they all began to spark and shut down.

"What you want is irrelevant. Sit down and shut up before I do it for you." When he did nothing, Axton came over and relieved him of his weapon.

"I got him, kiddo. Might want to listen to the young lady, General, I'll just kill you, she won't be nearly as merciful."

"...Soldier?"

"Marine, actually, and formerly. Apparently I was too much of a glory hound. So, General, I'm going to tell you what I never got the chance to tell my own commanders. Keep calm, be quiet, and let us work. With minimum input from you, everything will be fine." Ironwood scowled but did as ordered.

"Alright ladies, the magic portal is open!" Tina shut the panel and the box extended up and opened a light screen. "So, who's coming with?"

"Axton, another health." Gaige raised her hand and caught the vial before opening the machine and pressing it to Amber's arm. "Fix-it, stasis." She stepped back and let the surveyor put a shield orb around the young woman and pull her up. "Tina, activate it."

"Okay, thirty seconds before its scrap!"

"Who's going? Now is the time to decide."

"I am," Glynda Goodwitch said, stepping forward. "I'm not letting you take the Headmaster prisoner."

"Yeah, sure, fine, whatever," Gaige said before grabbing her and activating the console. The familiar tunnel of light appeared before Gaige and Goodwitch set down on the rig. Then came Tina and just before it shut off, Axton. "Alright, let's get her prepped," she said, leading the way inside.

—oo000oo—

Glynda Goodwitch looked around in shock, she already knew about the girl's teleportation technology but that was nothing compared to actually experiencing it. Seeing that she had been left behind, she walked to the closing door and stopped it. Heading in, she saw a setup that she knew any would envy. Seeing a table with a holo-map on it, she began tapping on it to try and see where she is.

"_I'm sorry, you don't have access to that console."_

"Who said that?"

"_I did. I am Jenny, the AI in control of this station."_

"Okay, Jenny, where am I?"

"_You are on the Rig. An abandoned oceanography station that Miss Crescent rebuilt to her needs and desires. Judging by state of decay, this station had been abandoned for nearly one hundred and fifty seven years."_

Goodwitch frowned, there wouldn't be a record of something that old. "...Where is Pandora?"

"_Pandora is not listed on my charts of Remnant,"_ the AI said, making the woman sigh. _"The planet Pandora is located twenty seven lightyears from Remnant. Galaxy Pandora is located seven octillion from Remnant."_

"Okay, where is Gaige Crescent from."

"_I'm sorry, that is not listed in my records."_

"...How did Axton and Tina get here?"

"_They arrived via personal ship, the High and Flighty. Currently parked next to Miss Crescent's ship, Slipper Misfit, an EX-21 'near star' jump ship."_

"Do you have access to their travel logs?"

"_Yes."_

"Where are they from?"

"_They came from..."_

"Jenny, designate Glynda Goodwitch as guest status. Further more, all others aside from myself, Tina, and Axton are to be considered guest unless specifically stated. And if any come without the access code, they are to be considered invaders," Gaige ordered. "That was rude."

"So is lying," Goodwitch replied, facing her. "What is all of this, huh? Robots flying around doing maintenance, teleportation, able to construct robots from your arm, you're not saying something and it is serious."

"...I'm a little green man from alpha centoria," Gaige told her before turning around. "Now come on, we got Amber in the medical pod. Its helping her so we just need to prepare the mixture to bring her back. Once she wakes up, she'll want to see someone she knows."

Inside, Glynda saw Axton liquifying an ingot of Eridium with some fire dust with it. "You are going to put that inside her?"

"Yes."

"Is it safe?"

"For you and me, no. We would die horribly, but maidens and sirens are different. They are humans that have been changed by the Eridians, they'll be fine."

"How do you know?"

Gaige sighed and said, "Her name was Angel, she was a Siren. Her father was an insane asshole that liked experimenting on people with Slag, that liquid. She would have died years ago if not for that stuff being pumped into her veins. When we shut it off, me and Axton, she died, quickly, telling her father how much she hated him. Then the bastard kidnapped a friend of ours, Lilith, another Siren. Did the same to her, so he could torture her until he got revenge on us."

"You killed his daughter?"

"Not the highlight of my life but Angel wanted to die and to stop her father."

"...That black armband, the gun with wings."

"Yeah, the one I killed," she spat out. "Axton, I'll keep a close eye on Amber's vitals, start when ready. Remember, slow."

"Yup." He activated the feed and watched the first drip of fire slag enter Amber's body. In moments, Amber seized up and her vitals jumped erratically. Gaige watched a second before reaching for a health stim when it stopped. Everything was normal.

"...Amber, Amber! Are you awake!?" Glynda pounded on the glass and began to smile when Amber groaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"Goodwitch? Keep it down, I'm trying to sleep."

"I'm sorry for waking you. How are you feeling?"

"Like someone ripped a hole in me."

"Okay, just rest and when you wake up, we'll get you something to eat, anything you want."

She nodded weakly and said, "Okay," as she closed her eyes again.

Goodwitch watched her in relief and finally said, "Alright, I believe you aren't here to hurt us. Now what?"

—oo000oo—

"So, you all know Gaige," Yang Xaio Long asked while leaving the lunch hall.

"Not in person," Wiess replied.

"Same here," came from Blake.

"I know of her through my father, he was rather upset when she kept hanging up on him when he tried to call her and now he can't reach her."

"I...used to sympathized with White Fang before it got extreme but that report... I didn't know it had gotten so bad."

"You supported them!? Why," Wiess demanded.

"Because whether you want to admit it or not, _Miss Schnee_, most faunus are treated poorly by humans. I don't support killing or anything but I just want things to be equal. Some work under terrible conditions no human would, just to bring home enough food to keep their family from starving. And this isn't just against your father, there are more racist in the world than just him. He just happens to be their figure head. After all, Taurus didn't brand himself with SDC."

"How dare you!? Do you know how many relatives and family friends those people have killed over the years!?"

"I'm not excusing that but it doesn't excuse that your father is a horrible person!"

"Girls, don't fight," Gaige said as she walked by with Professor Goodwitch, Tina, and Axton. "Hey, Ruby, Yang."

"Gaige," Ruby shouted excitedly as she suddenly appeared by her. "Save anymore towns lately?"

"Actually yes, Shion from a group of bandits," Gaige told her.

"Ah look, the Mechromancer has a fan," Axton jibed while nudging Tina.

"No heroes on Pandora, huh," Tina called.

"Shut it," Gaige growled back. "Keeping out of trouble, Ruby?"

"Of course!"

"Ahem," Professor Goodwitch corrected.

"Um, most of the time," Ruby continued.

"Yang, how are you doing?"

"I'm...better," the blond said unenthusiastically. "Oh, Gaige, these are Wiess and Blake, our team members. They follow your exploits somewhat."

"Hello."

"Greeting Miss Crescent," Weiss said nicely. "I'm happy to meet a talented huntress like yourself."

"Don't be," Gaige replied. "Depending on how things go with Ozpin, I might just be fighting against the teams in full contact sparring." To which, Yang grimaced, Ruby cheered, Wiess blinked, and Blake commented.

"A full fledged huntress against students?"

"Do you think out in the wilds, your enemy will care about such a disadvantage? Call it practice for the inevitable. You are Blake Belladonna, aren't you?"

That caused her to tense, "Yes?"

"Hmm. I liked your father's methods more. Shall we get back to it, Goodwitch?"

"Yes, have a good day, girls, and no fighting."

"Ladies," Axton said while flicking a few fingers against his forehead.

The team watched them go before Yang began to grin. "Well, he's a stud. Nice butt too."

"Oh, I'm so excited," Ruby cheered, jumping up and down. "A team battle against an experienced huntress! If we win that, do you think we'll get a reward!? How many first year teams do you think can do that!?"

"Not many," Blake stated. "I would go so far as saying maybe not even this one but then you two have seen her fight. What chances do you think we have?"

"Depends on if she'll go easy on us," Yang replied.

—oo000oo—

Gaige caught an axe in her machine hand, pulled it to bring the owner closer, slammed her fist into his face a few times, before tripping him, and pinning him to the ground with his own axe. "Team Quartz has been defeated," Glynda Goodwitch called, another notch going for the Vault Hunter. Currently the score was zero loses, twenty seven victories for her. The worst part for the students though was that they see that she had two bars for her aura gauge. The first fell down quickly but also recharged, so they had yet to actually hit her. It took only a little work for the machine to read her health and shield bars as supplied by her ECHO. "Miss Crescent, are you capable of continuing?"

"Of course," she replied, reloading the Greed and snapping the cylinder shut, giving off a burst of lightning. The only advantages she gave these students was that she didn't bother summoning Deathtrap or Deathray and she didn't hide her weapons or skills. They could watch her, they could study her, and maybe one of them could come up with a plan to beat her. Not likely but hey, sometimes the unknown happens.

"...Very well, is there any volunteers?" Of course there wasn't, there hadn't been any since the seventh fight. "...Team Cardinal, gather whatever you need and enter the arena." They got up and trudged forward like men sentenced to death while the remains of Team Quartz pulled themselves together and got out. Neither Gaige nor Goodwitch were cruel, once the volunteers stopped, they started with the senior teams and worked down. Now all that remained were the first years. "Team Ruby, Team Juniper, you are the only teams left, decide which will go first. Provided that Miss Crescent isn't beaten, of course."

"Of course," the eight teens muttered almost in unison.

—oo000oo—

Jaune Arc watched closely, breaking down every move the woman made, every weapon she used. Professor Goodwitch put this forward to them as a chance to compare themselves against a professional huntress their age and many had been excited. That excitement had vanished quickly. The girl, Gaige Crescent he believed, did not care for any precepts like honor or fairness, she focused on survival and victory and her fighting style showed it. She disabled, fought dirty, used their numbers against them, and discarded rules most thought sacred. Then there was just the absurd parts of her. Throwing lightning around, the ability to summon different weapons as needed, that second aura she used that quickly recharged. Her pinpoint accuracy with her weapons.

Down below, Gaige rolled over Dove's shoulders while bringing her gun up and firing at Cardin's mace, hitting the same spot she had five times already. The mace wasn't conducting the elecricity as Cardin thought to wrap the handle in plastic. Smart move. It was still a mace-grenade launcher. Which meant it held a dust grenade. That was sensitive to lightning.

The mace blew up in Winchester's hands, throwing him across the arena. It was a move that few would consider using as a weapon was often considered a far too personal an item. Something Gaige clearly didn't care for and that wasn't the first time she had done it. "Winchester is unable to continue," Professor Goodwitch called.

"Nora, no grenades," Jaune whispered, getting a groan but an agreement.

Gaige began reloading her pistol and the rest of Team Cardinal fell back, everyone had learned to not get too close by now. She had the habit of reloading when a team tried to stay close, what with that nova of electricity she gave off, it was a good move. Jaune didn't even want to think how much watts she gave off that it would cause people's clothes to burst into flames.

"Nora, see that," he said, pointing to her hand just before she shot lightning out.

"Yes?"

Down below, Gaaige grinned as she jumped back and waited a few seconds before firing again. The first round hit Sky Lark, covering him in this dark purple slime. "Ugh! She got that nasty shit in my mouth!" The next shot hit him hard enough to sent him flying into the wall.

"She always grabs that disk before she does it," Jaune continued. " When she does, get in her way."

"Yeah, will do," she said with a grin.

"What do you see, Jaune," Pyrrha asked.

"Everything comes back to electricity with her. Her guns, her abilities. I think her generating it is her semblance and she becomes more powerful as she uses it. That device on her right hip." He focused on the shell scale hollow of the machine. "That is what generates her recharging aura,I'm sure of it, while the disk lets her throw lightning. I don't know for sure what the lunch box is for but it can't be good. And I don't understand where her weapons comes from."

"Best guess?"

"Best guess is she has a short range teleportation device or ability to change her weapons out as needed. Maybe the lunch box." Gaige grabbed her hammer and hit it into Sky's breastplate, dropping him. "That cybernetic arm is custom and has to be grounded into her torso to be able to put out that much power."

"Sky Lark is unable to continue," Goodwitch called.

Gaige knelt down and grabbed Sky's halberd before throwing it. Russel jumped over it and when he was in the air and couldn't dodge again, Gaige fired twice with Greed. Both bullets hit him in the gut and when he fell to the ground, he curled up and stayed there, the rubber bullets innocently lying before his face. "And then there was one," Gaige called, turning for Dove. He held his sword out almost as if to block Gaige from doing something to him. "...Well? Are you just going to stand there? Come at me!" She watched him a moment before turning to Goodwitch. "I believe this one is unable to battle."

"Will you continue, Mister Bronzewing?"

"...No, I know I can't win."

"Dove Bronzewing has surrendered, Team Cardinal has been defeated." She turned to the crowd and said, "Team Ruby, Team Juniper, have you decided which will got first?"

Jaune hesitated a moment before standing, "We will, ma'am," he shouted.

"Come down then," she told them before looking to the defeated team around her. "...Cardinal, do you need medical attention?"

"I can walk," Russel groaned.

"It hurts to breath," Sky wheezed out.

"My arm hurts but I can walk," Cardin muttered, wincing at the pain and at his mace. This would take a while to repair.

"Mister Bronzewing, help Mister Lark to the infirmary, all of you go there."

—oo000oo—

Gaige leaned against the wall and began checking her weapons over before reloading the Greed and shutting it with a roll along her arm. Rubber bullets, sandbag shells, and they still couldn't handle her and they were her age when she landed on Pandora. And here came another team for the grinder. Looking up, she saw two swords, a warhammer, and the last had his hidden. The girl's hammer was a grenade launcher with six cylinders, lightning and fire would cause it to destabilize. The blond's sword she couldn't tell what the benefit was but she was sure it was overly dramatic and showy. The red head had a shield and the sword itself had too many angles to tell what it did. The last... He reminded her of Zer0. He was first.

The moment Glynda gave the signal, Greed was up and pointed at the green boy. And he was already gone. "Heya," the orangenette shouted, bringing her hammer down on her. Gaige didn't try and tank that, she stepped forward and caught the hammer close to where she held it.

"Reckless," Gaige growled as she pointed the Greed at her head and fired. The girl flew back and she ignored her in favor of the others. She blinked when she noticed that not only were there still four bars of health, one was growing _way_ more powerful.

"_**OH YEAH!" **_Gaige spun around and was shocked to see the girl had jumped back to her feet with a storm electricity coming off her. Gaige fired twice more and hit her but any damage the bullets did was negated by the healing and empowering effect lightning had on her. **_"POWER! UNLIMITED POWAH!"_**

"Shit." Nora lunged at her, swinging the hammer from the side. No dodging that. Bending down and bringing her machine arm up, she tried to block it the best she could. It hit and it was like being hit by Terramorphous again. Gaige flew to the other side of the arena and only stopped because she hit the wall, which cracked and nearly broke under her. "...Ow."

"_**Don't you know!? I'm Queen of the Castle!" **_Nora came at her again, preparing to swing at her. From the sound of it, people were moving from behind her.

_'Don't remember the last time I lost half my shield in one hit,'_ Gaige thought as she forced herself from the wall while switching out the Greed for Rex. She fell to the ground just before Nora Valkyrie landed the hit, destroying the wall. Gaige pointed up at her and fired twice, she wasn't using rubber with this gun. The rounds hit her aura and did damage to be sure but not nearly enough against that boost she gave her. Twisting around, Gaige pointed at the two charging at her, the blond and red head hiding behind their shields, and fired. While the shields took the hits, their auras did as well. Four. Gaige rolled on the ground and came up to grab Nora's hammer. Though she slid along the ground, she kept it from hitting her. Transformer began to feed off the electricity Nora emitted, trying to restrengthen. If not for someone shooting her with sub-machine gun fire. Shooting Nora in the stomach, she aimed behind her to get the one there but didn't see them. The Green Boy. She nearly reached for her Lightning mod but froze when she remembered the girl. Three bullets left.

"_**Let go and you're mine,"**_ Nora gleefully stated.

Twisting left, she aimed at the red head as she began to bring her sword down. Gaige was able to fire over the shield but her arm was jerked up when she did, the bullet going wide. Two. Feeling a hit behind her, she elbowed back. Hitting the shield, she grimaced. Bringing the Rex around to fire again, the same result happened, her arm suddenly pulled up. Swords to her left and right, hammer to the front, and gunner behind. She'd joke about Bunkers and Badasses if she could.

Her shield suddenly shattered but Gaige had no idea why, she still had a third of the bar. "Pyrrha, keep it away from her," Jaune shouted as he threw her belt to her as she pulled away.

"Fuckers," Gaige shouted, looking wide eyed after her belt as Pyrrha Nicos caught it and fell back.

"Ren, take it," Pyrrha called as she broke away and threw the belt farther. It hit the ground and sat there a moment before Gaige could just make out Lie Ren roll over it and pick it up.

"Ow, ow, fucking shit, ow!" The nano machines in Gaige's body did their job and kept the sword and bullets from actually piercing her but it didn't stop the impact. That's when she noticed that Pyrrha wasn't fighting anymore, she was pointing her hand at Gaige's cybernetic one. And it was being forced to let go. "You have got to be fucking kidding me!?" If Nora was freed, that was it, Gaige was done.

"Language, Miss Crescent," Glynda Goodwitch called, smiling.

"Eat a cock!" Gaige pointed the Rex at Pyrrha and like she expected, the gun pulled up. Gaige used that chance to tighten her grip on the hammer.

"Jaune, get rid of the gun!"

"On it!" Wrapping his shield arm around her gun arm, he hit the hilt of his sword against her pinned hand.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK IT!" Gaige dropped the Rex and called a regular grenade to that hand that she activated and dropped. It wasn't anything powerful, it barely hurt the three of them it hit, but it wasn't supposed to. It threw the three of them away. "FUCK ALL OF THIS SHIT! GET THEM BOY!" She summoned Deathtrap to focus on Nora before grabbing Axton's Nuke'em. Firing over and over, she reloaded and did it again until she saw one of the bars dip into red. Lie Ren.

Seeing him, she discarded the rocket launcher and ran over to him. Grabbing her belt, she sent it to her storage deck units to keep it out of the way until she was ready for it. Seeing Pyrrha stumble back to her feet, having been caught in a rocket blast, Gaige charged her and speared her shoulder right into her back, tackling her to the ground. Grabbing her shield and holding it to the floor with her metal arm, she slammed her fist over and over again into her head until she was dazed and done. Summoning Greed, she pointed it at Jaune and shot him in the crotch. He went down. Looking up in time to see Deathtrap be destroyed by a final hit from Nora, she summoned her belt and Heartbreaker and began firing it at the girl. Discarding the sandbag shells, she changed them out for the real ones and kept firing. Nora came at her, not going down until falling just short, out of breath and aura. Gaige stood there a moment, panting, before she fell back on her butt with eyes wide, her heart hammering away. Standing back up, she looked to the team as they struggled to stand. "Which, ha-ha, of you little shits, ha, came up with that plan?" Jaune hesitantly raised his hand. Gaige walked over, grabbed him by his collar, and pulled him to his feet. "You did," she asked, looking him up and down. When he nodded, she whispered, "I would have you, right here in this arena, until you begged for mercy twice."

"Uh...as in fighting?" Gaige shook her head no and made his face glow with a blush.

"Miss Crescent, stop threatening the students because they almost beat you," Goodwitch told her.

"Just making it clear I expect just as good a performance next time," she replied as she lowered him back to the ground. She walked away while holding up two fingers. "Twice," she said back to him. Clearing the students, she reloaded the Heartbreaker and enjoyed the shock of those watching as her health refilled. "Miss Goodwitch, I am changing my stance on these kids, they might just have what it takes after all. Team Ruby, get your butts down here."

"No, even if you have healed yourself, you are wounded. You're done." Gaige rolled her eyes and walked to the hall where Axton and Tina waited.

"Tag in," Gaige said while tossing the Nuke'em back to him while replacing her Badaboom. Acid wasn't sparring friendly after all.

"Ooh, ooh, me, me, me, me," Tina said, waving her arm wildly.

"Yes, Tina, go play with the kiddies," Gaige dismissed.

"Yay!" She ran out and shouted, "Let's get it on!" Pulling out the Boom Puppy, she loaded a magazine in it and cocked it in. "Last one down here gets to walk my puppies!" She threw down the transponder and in a flash of light, Enrique and Jean were both there, roaring at the crowds. "Enrique, Enrique, down, sit!" The badass fire skag looked to her and sat down. "Good puppy!" She threw him a treat and looked to Jean. He was sniffing around, trying to find something. The lighning kraggon walked up to Goodwitch, tilted his head at her, before continuing on. "Jean! Come back here," Tina called, running up to him and jumping on his back. "Where are you going?"

"Miss Tina...what are those," Glynda Goodwitch asked, shocked.

"They're my puppies! That's Enrique, the most adorable, mothahumpa Fire Skag of Pandora! And this is Jean, a Phonic Kraggon of Elpis."

"...They look like monsters," Goodwitch found herself saying but at least they didn't look like Creatures of Grimm.

"Welp, it looks like the last one down here gets to walk Enrique," Tina shouted. "Fear the Kraggon Calvary!"

Goodwitch stared at her for several seconds before saying, "Nope. Nope, I'm not dealing with this."

"Oh come on, Witch of the North."

"Nope! We're done for the day, you are all dismissed."

"But I..."

"Nope!"

"Not even..."

"Nope. Say no more, we're through here!"

Gaige couldn't stop laughing.

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: See You Space Cowboy.


	6. Who are you People

_**Or 'WTF!?'**_

—oo000oo—

For the third time, Roman Torchwick and his assistant Neo arrived at the designated meeting point and no one was there to meet them. "...I'll kill them. I'll kill them and mount whatever animal part they have on my wall."

"Keep it down," a gruff voice said from the side. Walking over, Neo grabbed the person and dragged them into the light. It was a dog tailed faunus but without a mask. "They might hear you."

"Who might hear me?"

"The woman hunting down the White Fang," the faunus stated.

"You're not who I was suppose to meet. Who are you and where is Taurus?"

"Call me Rover for all I care right now. As for Taurus, he's dead or soon will be. I'm guessing that you didn't see the big reveal, Adam Taurus hornless, missing an arm and a leg."

Torchwick turned to the side and cursed. "Who did it?"

"Don't know, got a vague description but in the last few days its changed. Early word of mouth puts it a woman with a big ass gun and demonic eyes. Sometimes she has a metal arm. Now, if it isn't her, its a guy with even more guns that form out of nowhere or a girl that commands Grimm. No recordings, only terror filled rantings from those that ran. All I know for sure is that everyone that stood against them is dead. Oh, and a message, throw away the mask and never put it on again, or I'll kill you and I'll know if you do. That's the thing, every time someone says that."

Torchwich rolled his eyes and said, "So where's the rest of the Fang?"

Rover shook his head, looked to Neo, and said, "Did he not hear a word I said? They are dead. All of them. And those that aren't dead are too afraid to even leave what house they are hiding in. There are no more White Fang in Vale. They've hit every base, even Glenn. It's over, here."

"...I have five Atlas Paladins, what the fuck am I going to do with them!?"

"You've already been paid, just sell them again."

"Sell five stolen mechs? Who the fuck is going to buy it!?"

"The White Fang isn't in the position to take them. Sell them, scrap them, throw them away, I don't care." Rover turned around and walked away. "But once you have, get out of sight. Whoever this person is, they have no problem killing anyone."

"...Just go," Torchwick dismissed. "Damn animals can't do anything right." If Rover heard, he didn't care. Taking out his scroll, Roman raised it to his ear and called someone. "Cinder, we have a problem. ...Don't get mad at me, those animals are the ones that couldn't handle a mercenary hired to kill them! ...Yeah, all them. No one can take the paladins. I'll get rid of them somehow but I just found out that Glenn was hit too. That part of the plan is a bust. Yeah, yeah, I'll take care of it." He hung up and said, "Neo, we need to find some new buyers or some place to drop them off without notice."

Neo typed on her scroll and held it up to read, _'Junior?'_

"Yeah."

—oo000oo—

Gaige got a notice and thought of just ignoring it but connected anyway. It was the phone of the woman the doctor talked to, Cinder she had since learned her name was. _"Hello?"_

"_Cinder, we have a problem,"_ came from the other side of the phone and Gaige instantly perked up, holding up a hand to stall whatever Goodwitch was telling and or commanding of her before putting the conversation on the speakers for Goodwitch and the Wizard to hear.

"_What the hell did you do now?"_

"_Don't get mad at me, those animals are the ones that couldn't handle a mercenary hired to kill them!"_

The woman paused before saying, _"They're dead?"_

"_Yeah, all of them. No one can take the paladins."_ Gaige activated a monitor and began searching for those, quickly coming up with the new Atlas weapon. _"I'll get rid of them somehow but I just found out that Glenn was hit too. That part of the plan is a bust."_

"_Damn it! Do something with those worthless machines and wait for my call!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, I'll take care of it," _Roman Torchwick said before ending the call.

Gaige was smiling by now, Atlas Paladins wouldn't be an easy thing to get rid of, even with an ocean nearby. Too much chance of someone stumbling upon it. Best thing to do is either sell them or find some deep, dark hole that when something is put inside it is never found. Depending on what all Torchwick has done, he might not know of the second. Which means information. "Yeah, Oz, I got work to do, talk to you later. Go tell the Iron Woodsman that we'll have his bullet ridden robots soon. Axton, Tina, I think its time I introduce you to a new friend."

"Sounds fun, hope he has something to drink," Axton said as he stood.

"Think he'll play Bunkers and Badasses," Tina asked as she hopped up and ran for the elevator.

"Maybe, Junior is kinda cool like that," Gaige stated. "Besides, I need to reclaim my stool anyway."

Ozpin watched the three leave and eventually went, "Hmm. I can't remember the last time anyone considered me more or less irrelevant."

"That woman is infuriating," Goodwitch growled while twisting her riding crop.

"Yes, but effective."

—oo000oo—

As Jerry was with his girlfriend today, Junior was behind the counter of his newly renovated club. Things were looking good. He sent information to Red about bounties, she sent him not just money but a shitload of money. Nothing could go wrong.

"Junior!"

Except for Torchwick coming up and sitting down right on Red's stool. "Roman..." He looked around and shook his head. "My guys aren't working for you anymore. Someone with a lot of guns wants you dead."

"Yeah, I noticed," Roman grumbled, rubbing his leg where he could still feel where the bullet shot through him. "Look, I got something...exotic recently and I need to find someone to unload it on."

"Good exotic or bad."

"Depends on which end you see it from," he replied.

Junior nodded, some kind of weapon. "I might know of some people that would want something like that but...you shouldn't be here."

"Don't give me that cr..."

"No," Junior interrupted. "I just got the place cleaned up and you come in with a mark on your head. I don't think you've noticed the kind of things the person after you does." Where Torchwick couldn't see, he motioned to the twins.

"Everyone is overreacting about this one girl," Torchwick nearly shouted. "She didn't get me last time, she won't get me this time!"

Suddenly, Miltia Malachite sat to his right. "Brave, this one," she said, motioning for a drink.

"Especially when word has it he only got away because of help," Melanie finished as she sat the other side. "We've met Red, she's scary."

"Nearly made Junior soil himself," Miltia said while taking the drink she was handed and put it in front of Torchwick. "A drink for the condemned."

"Ha ha, she's not that tough."

Junior shrugged, "If you say so. ...Oh, Red, you already heard Roman was here." Torchwick jerked around, fumbling with his cane to find no one there. "Not scared, huh?"

"It is to laugh."

"Roman, she threatened me with a magazine fed rocket launcher," Junior said seriously. "Get out and I will send you the information on your scroll. Double normal price because of the trouble you are anymore."

"Do you think this is..."

"I have Red on speed dial, I can have her here in a moment. Melanie, would you be so kind as to clear the club?" Since it wasn't noon yet, that would be easy.

"I'm not forgetting this, Junior," Torchwick said with a scowl.

"I don't think it matters. Now either pay me or get lost." Reluctantly, Torchwick slid a card over. Picking it up, Junior looked it over before setting it on a cutting board, picked up a knife, and stabbed into a corner. The whole thing shattered. "Ah, Neopalitan, how have you been?"

The young lady appeared and sat down on a stool, putting a scroll on the counter. _Quite good, Junior, though I must be getting predictable._

"Not really, I just know Torchwick. Speaking of, I'm going to give you a bit of advice for free. Torchwick's time is up. The girl that wants him, I have more faith that she will kill him than the other way around and she isn't the type to fall for illusions. More the type of killing you for associating with him. Roman, get out. I'm not going to have my club shot up because of you."

"Not without the information," he replied.

"Fine," Junior quickly replied, sending the names of those he heard were looking for heavy weapons to his scroll. "Now leave. If you're still alive once this is settled, you can come back but until then, don't."

With grumbling on Roman's parts, the two left and the three continued to wait there. After a few minutes, Junior stuck his hand out where Roman had been to make sure they were actually gone. Grabbing his scroll, he made a call. "...Hey Red."

"_Junior, I'm actually on my way to see you."_

"So you already heard that Roman had just stopped in."

"_...I must be getting predictable."_

"No, I just know you're a fucking genius is all. I put a certain tracking bug you gave me on Roman's scroll. He's all yours. I'd tell you he has some sort of exotic weapon but I have no doubt you not only know that but what type too."

"_I will not dignify that last part with a response but how did you remove that bug from my datachip."_

"Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm a regular genius." Hearing laughter from the other end, he began to smile a little.

"_I'll send you your cut once I have it."_

"Three hundred thousand."

"_Four hundred, you deserve a tip."_ With that, Gaige hung up.

"...I love working with bounty hunters,"he said once more.

—oo000oo—

Torchwick checked his pockets once more, still certain that something had been slipped off him or put on and yet he once more found nothing. _Problem?_ Neo asked.

"Junior never gives a freebie if he can help it and he is rarely wrong. And I'm starting to get an itchy feeling on the back of my neck, something isn't right."

He was right too, on the roof of a building down the street, Axton stood wearing goggles connected to his shoulder mounted camera. "I got him, kiddo," he said into his radio. "He's walking down the street now with some short girl with two colored hair. Reminds me of Neapolitan ice-cream, looks like a classy, young lady."

"_Yeah, we see them,"_ Tina replied from the alley behind the two. _"Want me to sic Enrique and Jean on them?"_

"_No, not yet," _ Gaige ordered._ "We need them to get to the robots first, then you can feed Torchwick to the hounds. Save his head, I need that for identification. If the girl runs, let her. No one wants her head. Launching drone to keep track of them."_ Deathray flew into the air and began following them. While he did, Gaige kept looking through the scope of the Cobra, centered right on his jugular. _"Think I should give him a bit of a scare?"_

"_Better not, last thing we want is to have him know that Junior sold him out," _Axton replied. _"He doesn't know until he is already dead. I learned that the hard way one time, shock and awe is always better. Looks hella cool too. Just one question, alive?"_

"_Depends on the situation but for the most part, no, this one had his chance when we met. The first clear shot after we find the Paladins, his head comes off."_

"_Sweet," _Tina said, riding out of the alley and driving down the road.

—oo000oo—

Coming to the warehouse, Roman grabbed his scroll and began making some calls. _"Hello?"_

"Yes, am I correct in understanding that this is the scroll of a... Raven Branwen?"

"_Who is this?"_

"I'm a supplier, in this case, a weapons supplier."

"_We have weapons."_

"Not like these. I'll be activating my camera for a moment." Roman did and turned his scroll to the Paladins.

"_...Do they work?"_

"Neo, would you be so kind?" Neo saluted, climbed into one, and began working the controls. It took a few steps forward and moved the arms. "Satisfied that I mean business?"

"_Yes I am. Where are you?"_

"Currently, I am in Vale but I can move them to other locations. Now, let's talk about a price."

"_Let's not," _a new voice put it as a third image appeared. _"Hey Torchwick,"_ Gaige said with a smile. _"And the bandit lady! How's your raider clan taking that defeat?"_

"_You little bitch! When I find you, I'm going to rip your spine out!_

"_I'm sure you will, pardon me one second." _Gaige raised the Cobra up to look through the scope. _"Sorry, Torchwick, I'm going to be paid a lot of lien to return those mechs. Then of course there is the price on your head itself. Tell you what though, I will give you this last chance to surrender and just go to prison for the rest of your life. I'll give you five seconds to make your decision."_

"_You're not fooling me, Red."_

"_Four."_ Roman crossed his arm and waited. _"...Zero."_

—oo000oo—

Raven jerked back as she saw the rifle in the girl's hand buck and blood cover Torchwick's scroll. _"...I'm a little disappointed,"_ Gaige stated. _"I thought for sure this would be a long, drawn out fight. Oh well. Now, about you, Raven, was it?"_

"I'm going to kill you, for what you did to me and my clan."

"_The strong live and the weak die,"_ Gaige quoted again. _"I'm going to kill you and your entire clan. And not for the money, I just hate raiders like you. Killing you won't be my business, it'll be my pleasure."_ Gaige stood up and dropped down from the roof through the window she aimed through, switching out the Cobra for the Badaboom in case the pilot thought of doing something stupid. _"Come on in guys. You, step out of the mech."_

A pair of hands extended out of the Paladin and Neo climbed out as two more people came into view. _"What should we do with her,"_ the guy asked.

"_Gaige said if she runs, she runs,"_ the little girl replied.

Gaige walked to her and said, _"Its your lucky day. No one wants your head and I have no order from Mister Wizard to collect you for him... Though if you ever need a job, here's my card."_ Neo took it and looked to Roman and then back to her. _"Killing Torchwick was just business. And he shot at me so there is that too, I suppose. But really, it's business."_ Gaige turned around, walked to Roman, put the end of her shoe on his scroll and grabbed his cane. Raising the end up, she waited until the Neo behind her shattered like glass and another appeared before her, the cane tip now under her chin. _"Those are skills I can use, I promise, there is a lot of money in working with us." _Neo was still a moment before grabbing the card where it fell. _"I'll take that as you'll think about it."_ Neo nodded and vanished. Looking at Raven, Gaige smiled again. _"Bye Raven, I'll be seeing you soon."_ _**Click.**_

—oo000oo—

"What do you think,"Tina said after putting Torchwick's bowler on her head.

"Dapper as hell but I don't think its your thing," Axton replied. "Though I do wonder what Enrique would look like wearing it."

"If you're gonna wear a bowler, might as well have a cane with it," Gaige said, tossing her the weapon and grabbing the scroll from the ground. "What information I'll pull from you," she whispered. Taking a bag, she put the head in it and opened a call to Ozpin. "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. He kinda is the best wiz there ever wiz and was."

"_Miss Crescent, did you make that up on the spot," _Ozpin asked.

"Nah, just a movie, a really old one. Maybe I'll send it to you. So, does the Woodsman know we have his toys?"

"_I've informed him that you are recovering them. Am I to assume you have?"_

"Got them right here. So, how much is the Tinman going to pay us to get them back?"

"_I was rather hoping you would do that for free."_

"Why? I like proving the Tinman has a heart by making him infuriated."

"_Please, Miss Crescent."_

"Fiiiiine. He can have them back for free. But only if I get to keep one, I want to put it on my lawn."

"Gaige, we don't have a lawn," Axton reminded her.

"Same principle."

"You just want to dissect it to see if any of it would be useful with Deathtrap," Tina accused, tilting her head while resting both hands on the cane.

"True enough," Gaige replied. "Tina, I set up 'Catch-A-Ride' not too far from here."

"I already have my bike."

"I don't need you to have a bike, I need you to get the other vehicle and take that one to the base."

"...Wait, did you add that already? Sweet!" Tina ran out, started her bike, and drove off.

"_Do I want to know?"_

"Oh, you very much do, but you won't, Oz. That is one of my secrets. So, we still have a week to kill until we can find Amber's other half, so I'm going to turn this in and get to work on some side projects. Give me a call if you want us to work with the kids some." Gaige hung up and looked up when she heard the roar of a Bullhead coming her way.

"_I believe I can fly bitches,"_ Tina yelled through the speakers.

—oo000oo—

Cinder had to resist pacing. Torchwick was late and the White Fang was gone. If these were the only things that were wrong, she could have handled it. But it wasn't, oh no. If not for Emerald and Mercury still being besides her, she would have no control of the situation at all. Mountain Glenn was blown up and the Vytal Festival has more or less been put on hold with the number of bodies that has been turning up. Again, if that was all, she could possibly compensate for it. It wasn't. The final problem was with her power. It wanted to be made whole again, she could always feel it trying to pull the rest of it to her. That has changed. Not only has it stopped coming, some of it feels like it was taken back. Amber was getting better. She hadn't told her concerns to anyone, that would reveal her weakness and she couldn't have that. "Damn it, Torchwick" Grabbing her scroll, she called him and when she heard the other side open up, she said, "Where the hell are you!?"

"_...You must be Cinder Fall,"_ a girl's voice said in amusement. _"Well, currently, I'm in the police station. But if you are referring to Roman Torchwick, he's being examined to confirm his identity. What with me killing him and turning him in for the bounty on his head."_ Cinder's blood ran cold. _"Literally his head, as I removed it from the rest of him."_

"You're the one, the fly in the ointment, ruining everything."

"_What can I say, I'm a troublemaker for troublemakers."_

Cinder took a deep breath before finally speaking again. "How much?"

"_How much what?"_

"How much will it take for you to stop and go away?"

The silence was followed by laughing. _"Hey Axton, this girl is trying to bribe me! Let me tell you something, sweet heart, you don't have what it would take. I don't do this because of the pay, I have more money than God. Torchwick pissed me off so he had to die. Adam Taurus pissed me off, now he wishes he was dead. And once I'm done with you and the White Fang, I'm going after your precious Queen."_ Her blood turned to ice. _"Yeah, I know about that. Once Ozpin came clean, I learned a lot interesting things. Do you know why you and your two henchmen, Mint Mocha and Metal Legs, aren't already dead? Because I have a different target to kill first. But make no mistake, I will be coming for you. After what I saw in Mountain Glenn, there is no way I would miss killing an evil bitch like you. I hope that thought keeps you up at night."_

"Cinder," Emerald said, seeing the color her face was turning. "Is something wrong?"

"No."

"_You have to know that you can't win, right? I'm monitoring everything you do. You can't hide from me, I am everywhere in everything. As far as you are concerned, I am the Alpha and Omega. And once I kill a thief of Maiden's innocence, I'm coming for you. I hope you baste in that fear."_ The phone hung up and slowly, Cinder turned off her scroll and removed the battery.

"Yo, Cinder, you look like you're gonna be sick," Mercury stated.

"...Torchwick is dead. And the person that killed them is the one that got the White Fang. And she wants to kill us ne..." Cinder tilted her head and considered what she said again. "No, she wants to kill the person that stole the Maiden's power next."

"Uh, boss lady, that is you."

"Yes, but she doesn't know that. Which gives us an advantage.

—oo000oo—

"So...I've been under for months now," Amber asked around a mouthful of rocky road ice cream. Grabbing a fork, she stabbed an over easy egg and a slice of bacon and shoveled them in her mouth as well before glancing to the right wall.

"That's what I understand," Axton told her, sitting backwards in a chair with his arms crossed on the back. "You remember who did this to you?"

"...No," she muttered, grabbing some toast. And another spoonful of ice cream. "I remember a little girl..." She shook her head.

"Hmm. You should be able to feel where they are, do you?" Again, Amber looked to the wall, like she couldn't help herself.

"I...don't know."

"Let's try this, why do you keep looking that direction, there's no food there."

"I just..." Amber tilted her head and had no answer. Before taking another bite of her food.

"That's probably it then. The two halves of the maiden wants to be whole and are trying to pull you together."

"...I'm not sure what help I'll be aside though. I lost to them last time and they're most certainly stronger now than they were."

"Ah, but last time they caught you by surprise, little lady. I can promise you that they aren't expecting to see you again. And from what I understand, you were alone, you won't be this time. You have at your side a dashing hero, me, hyperactive sidekick, Tina, and the Mechromancer, Gaige. And that's if the Wizard of Oz doesn't send his cabal to help. I dare say that they won't know what is coming. But as they say, what is good for the gander."

"Uh, I don't know that one," Amber said with her mouth full.

"What is good for the Gander is good for the Goose. It means the odds are even. I hate it when the odds are even. And you are the only way we can change that. Think back to the kid, work from there."

Amber swallowed and frowned. "I...was alone in the country side and up ahead was a little girl, crying and all alone. I went up to her...tried to calm her when I was blind sided. Um. No..."

"What?"

"She vanished, I think."

"An illusion. Hologram or someone's semblance. That does help. What else do you remember?"

"After that is just blurs and...fear of the darkness."

Axton cupped his chin, finding that he needed to shave again, and considered it. "...They had a grimm with them. So, that means the Queen is..."

"Pulling the strings," Gaige said, walking in. "Hello, Amber, glad to finally meet you." Three holo-images appeared in her hands and showed them to her. "These the ones that attacked you?"

Amber looked at the three pictures and her breath quickened. "...Yeah, that's them."

"Guess I'll be killing Cinder sooner than I expected. Weaknesses."

"I don't know..."

"Not theirs," Gaige interrupted, "yours."

"What?"

"It is your power, you know it best. What are your strengths and weaknesses?"

"...I can do a lot of things with it but it favored fire."

"Good, what else?"

"...I can't think of anything." Gaige's face didn't change. "What do you expect, its a magical power that lets me change reality as I see fit! I can fly with it, control the elements and weather! The limits are on the person who uses it!" Now Gaige nodded. "...Who are you people, really? I should be dead or dying, not talking to you like this. And what is this stuff you're pumping into my arm!?" She pointed to the IV filled with a red and purple liquid.

"...In essence it is a special kind of dust that reacts well with maidens," Gaige told her, moving to the coffee pot and pouring herself some. "Where's the coco, ah there it is. Catch!" She threw something over her shoulder and Amber caught it, seeing it was a purple brick. A brick that began ringing in her grasp. "That is eridium. It reacts to those empowered by the eridians. You call them Maidens, we've known them as Sirens. Hey, Axton, remember that time Maya opened a wormhole _inside_ that massive stalker?"

"Hah, and it exploded and covered her in gore, I have never seen her so close to freaking out as that."

"You people are weird," Amber stated.

"No arguing that," Gaige countered, picking the ingot up and the ringing stopped. No, not stopped, just lessened.

"...You're a Maiden?"

"Oh no, not like what you're thinking at least. Let me show you." She went to the door and said, "Jean, come here boy!" The kraggon poked his head inside and panted like a dog. "Sit." When he did, Gaige grabbed him a steak and threw it over. As he ate it, she rested the ingot on his back, it began to ring louder than with Gaige before it fell off. "This stuff is everywhere where we come from. Creatures like Jean are changed by it, as are people. We know a guy, Krieg, that can spit fire."

"...What is that?"

"Huh, oh, Jean is a kraggon that's been charged with lightning."

"What's a kraggon?"

"Short hand, lava monster. Here, you can pet him, if you don't mind the touch of warm rock. Just...don't make jerky movements. Wouldn't want to give the impression of a wounded animal."

"Crunch," Axton inserted.

"Yeah, despite being made of lava and rock, they are carnivorous."

"Why isn't it hot," Amber asked while resting a hand on his head. "Lava, right?"

"Ah, the lava is actually inside, it is cool enough on the surface to touch. That and I put a cooling system on his collar. See, kraggons actually live in a very cold environment so they need to be hot to survive, now he needs to be cold not to lose cohesion and melt. ...Axton, did you bring the Flame of the Firehawk?" She was grinning as she looked to the Marine and he slowly began to grin too, already seeing something of what she is thinking.

"Yeah, I got it."

"What's the Firehawk," Amber asked.

"Get Amber equipped, I'm sure she would love some payback," Gaige said while standing and turning to the door. "Come on Jean, I need to go brief the Wizard and you should go rest up for the fight ahead."

"Wait, what is the Flame of the Firehawk," Amber asked again.

"Its one of these," Axton said, rapping his knuckles on his shield. "Except some special things. Gaiges shield can absorb bullets and let her use them while also using lightning to recharge itself. Since Gaige uses that the most, she's almost impossible to stop. The Firehawk on the other hand, continuously explodes in fire once the barrier is depleted until it recharges. And it grants immunity to fire. You said the power favors fire, yes?"

"It... Who are you people?!"

—oo000oo—

Gaige stood in Ozpin's office, surrounded by the Oz-luminati. Goodwitch, Ironwood, Qrow, and Mister Wizard himself. "I have the information you wanted, Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and it is convoluted. To start it all off, we need to look back to before I became involved, to when Amber was ambushed. What was previously known was that three individuals stole part of Amber's power." Three silhouette pictures appeared in the holo. "I now have the identity of these three. Mercury Black, Cinder Fall, and Emerald Sustrai." Each image flipped over to reveal their faces as she said their names. "Mercury Black is the son of now deceased assassin and rogue huntsman Marcus Black. His legs are prosthetics and he is known to use that to his benefit, faking injury or withstanding attacks with them. Emerald Sustrai is a Mistriallian thief. Her semblance lets her create illusions. Then there is Cinder Fall. Nothing, not shit can be found about who she really is."

"Those names sounds familiar," Glynda muttered, looking at the pictures closely.

"They should but we'll get to them later. When they stole Amber's power and put it in Cinder, they used a Grimm. So the Black Queen is their backer. As if just anyone could steal eridian power. The three then makes contact and recruits two groups. The first is Roman Torchwick, the second is the Vale branch White Fang."

"Oh shit," Qrow said for them all, seeing how big this was getting.

"Exactly, Scarecrow. Using the power of the Maiden, they overpower and subjugate Adam Taurus, promising to aid him in his war. And that is where Roman comes in. While he is stealing every last spec of dust in Vale, the White Fang does two things. The first is putting the screws on the city, driving up fear and hate. The second is to begin setting up a base where no one but myself would ever discover. A ruined city called Mountain Glenn."

"There is nothing in Mountain Glenn," Ironwood told her. "Teams of hunters and huntresses make regular trips there to kill grimm."

"I am aware of that, Tin Woodsman," Gaige replied. "But how many of those teams have the nerve to go beneath the city, where the grimm wait? Imagine that tour. 'To our left, hundreds to thousands of people huddled together, alone in the dark, as they were killed, one by one by creatures of grimm'." No one answered. "Mountain Glenn has many things of value to others. A, you can't monitor it. B, are afraid to go. And C, you don't give a shit about it. Ah, and I nearly forgot D. A rail line from Mountain Glenn to the heart of Vale, direct, no splits or stops." Everyone was looking pale now.

"That is sealed," Ironwood tried to say.

"Ding, incorrect, thank you for playing," Gaige replied. "When you have the focus and manpower of the White Fang, who wants to kill all humans, what is something as simple as a sealed tunnel? I drove from Vale to Mountain Glenn, almost completely unimpeded. And what I found was a train being loaded with dust. Now there is two ways for this to be used, either as a big ass bomb or as a battering ram. Drop the cars off at certain points and blow them up, opening the tunnel to the grimm while the engine rams right through the barrier inside Vale. Where everything goes right to shit once the horde gets inside. That is where I found Taurus."

"So you did hack into the CCT," Ironwood accused.

"Pay attention, Tinman, we're talking about what the shit is going on. Now, whatever the plan was, it involved giving the White Fang the Paladins, maybe for a siege of Vale, maybe for something else, I don't know for sure but that is what I am inclined to think."

"Laying siege to the city is impossible," Glynda stated. "It can't be done with Beacon right here."

"If that was the only variable, then I would agree, Witch of the North. But the next step in the plan is somewhat revealed by Roman's scroll." She laid it on the desk and opened an image of a black queen chess piece. "This is a virus, one that even I'm impressed by. This virus was to be inserted directly into the CCT. With it, it would take control of all automatons directed through the CCTs. And Tinman, you brought not just an army of them, you brought two, the ones on the ground and the ones in the air. Your arrival was not only predictable, it was planned. I also found a code in this similar to something I used when I had Tina lock down the lockers to prevent them from being summoned when we were all about to kill each other. So the students of Vale would be unarmed when Order Sixty Six was carried out." Ironwood now turned the palest of the room.

Ozpin took a drink from his cup but didn't really taste it. "Has it been implanted yet?"

"No. The CCT, as you all know, is the most secure building in all of Remnant outside of your vault so the chances of someone breaking in is limited. In fact, the best chance of doing so is coming up shortly."

"...The Dance," Glynda stated. "We have almost a thousand more students here right now than normal. That many will take much more to monitor than usual, I was writing the shift schedule just yesterday and I noticed I may have to take some guards from there."

"Because you refuse to use the Tinman's toy soldiers to chaperone a bunch of teenagers for the night," Gaige finished. "People defenseless, Skynet set loose on humanity, it would only bring the grimm in such a horde that the walls would crumble under their shear weight before they even had a chance to climb over each other like ants. And that's if it wasn't planned for them to be blown up. Vale would fall. There is just one thing missing from this. Anyone willing to take a guess?"

"...Beacon would be locked down while the CCT is less protected," Qrow stated. "No transports to or from for twenty four hours before or after the dance."

"Then whoever was to do it would have to arrive prior and hide until it was time," Ironwood stated.

"Close but try something more imaginative... Anyone that wasn't supposed to be here would be caught at the slightest notice thanks to all the guards. So, if you want to break into the CCT, you make it look like you belong here." Gaige reached out and pulled down a camera picture. It was of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury sitting at a table wearing Haven uniforms. As they were moving, it was a video image of them in the chow hall. Goodwitch almost looked incensed as she pulled out her scroll and remotely shut off the lights in the hall and turned them back on. The same happened on the video, showing it was live.

"Son of a bitch," Qrow said, looking at it in disbelief.

"And in the chaos caused by the androids and the grimm, how hard would it be to take the rest of the maiden's power," Gaige asked. "Don't you fucking move, Ironwood, I'm not done yet." Her voice showed she would brook no resistance.

"They need to be apprehended," he tried to say.

"Sit your ass down or I'll help you do it. _I'm not done yet._" When he backed down, Gaige took a deep breath and pulled up a file. Cinder's to be exact. "Oz, notice something?"

"...Yes but why don't you tell us."

"Alright. It's real. This wasn't faked and slipped in, this came directly from the office of Haven Academy's headmaster, Leonardo Lionheart, with his signature. The Cowardly Lion put her inside this school. Now, can we believe that he was duped or did he do it on purpose?"

"That one of my allies might have betrayed us is disconcerting," Ozpin stated.

"Yet can we believe otherwise?" Gaige watched the video with almost an amused grin, while also pulling up a recent casualty list from Haven. There was an uptick starting two weeks ago. "The fuckers didn't even bother changing their names. Almost laughable. Notice that disconcerted look on Cinder's face? I put that there, she called Roman's phone after I killed him. I told her I was going to kill her. And I am a woman of my word. What bothers me is the virus though. Its not like these three have the brainpower to make it. They're smart, no doubt, and skilled, but a virus that lies undetected until activation that will completely cripple the Atlas Fleet and military, that is more than most can do. To say the least, it would take three or four of the robots to develop it with, and to be continually updated as you update their software."

"Hah! General Innuendo has a spy in his midst," Qrow barked.

"...Could you develop it," Ironwood pushed out, bringing up that this is awful convenient.

"I don't have to, you don't have the protection necessary to keep me out in real time."

"James, enough," Ozpin told him. "Miss Crescent has proven her trustworthiness." Gaige nodded to him while Ironwood scowled, preferring to think she wasn't, over the possibility that he was wrong about those he surrounded himself with. "...Miss Crescent, will you be able to handle Miss Fall?"

"Easily."

"Then I will handle Lionheart. I want to give my friend the chance to explain before he is punished."

"Then we should coordinate this," Gaige stated. "If he is helping her, then he may just have something up his sleeve to help her if she was attacked. At the very least, keep him busy while my friends handle them and... Hello?" She looked closer to the picture and noticed something. "Perfect."

"What?"

"Amber can feel her other half and is constantly glancing in this direction. Something that Cinder is doing as well. If we do this right, we can lure them away from the school. Anyway, my team will set up the ambush in three days, since no one else in this room knows how to."

"You're not going to let that go, are you," Qrow asked.

"Not a chance, Poe. I will never let you forget that I think the four of you can't plot for shit. And you, stay out of this one. You have done enough," she said to Ironwood.

When she walked out of the office, it was silent aside from Ozpin taking a drink before Qrow spoke up. "As glad as I am that the half pint is working with us, am I the only one that thinks it is somewhat irritating that she is as good as she thinks? She's only been working for you for what, a few months and she completely derailed the plan of one of her agents."

"I'm not," Ozpin replied. "I like it that there are still things I can't predict."

—oo000oo—

Gaige pulled Adam down and laid him on the deck, he was a lot less fearsome than when he went up there. Grabbing a bucket of water, she splashed it on his face. "Wake up!" Coughing and sputtering, she got the impression that he might have just insulted her. "You've been up there for seven days. Want to go for another seven?"

He coughed tried to clear his throat, and said, "No."

"Good." Gaige set the empty bucket upside down and sat on it. While grabbing a canteen of water and placed it between them. "You're boss." Weakly, Adam reached for the water but Gaige pulled it from his reach. "Your boss."

"Water please." That must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

"And how did begging effect you? Your boss."

"...Cinder Fall."

"Not her, you moron. You boss in the White Fang."

"She...is." Gaige picked up the canteen and began dumping it out on the ground where he could watch. "No! ...Siera Kahn."

"Better. Where does she roost?" When he hesitated, she began tipping it over again.

"Mistral, she's in Mistral. When she...is finished there, she plans to go to Atlas."

"Good dog," she told him, handing over the canteen. "Have a treat."

He grabbed it and eagerly drank from it but spat the last swallow on her face. "The Fang will kill you for what you did to me."

Gaige wiped off her cheek and smiled at him. "No, they won't." She pulled out a scroll and set it so he could watch the video.

It was of Sienna Kahn. _"White Fang brothers and sisters, many of you are scared, many of you are uncertain. Adam Taurus was one of our strongest so it is understandable. But this is a message from our leadership, do not mourn. Adam Taurus does not deserve it. Anger, hatred, and violence, these must be tempered by restraint. To act cruelly is to become a rabid animal and we are anything but. And rabid animals are put down. Taurus was an animal, make no mistake. The White Fang does things to make a point, what he did was hurt others for his own pleasure, akin to the grimm themselves. He brought down that response upon himself. As such, whether or not Adam Taurus still lives, he has been disavowed by the White Fang. Do not seek him or his own out. Do not seek revenge, focus on what will help our cause."_

The video ended and Gaige couldn't stop smiling at the destroyed look on his face. "Put the animal down, huh? Sounds like a good idea to me."

"You fu-bluergh!" What Adam was going to say was cut off white she kicked him in the stomach, sending him right over the side of the Rig. It wasn't a long drop and he survived the landing. He even was able to begin floating. Looking up, he saw Gaige looking down over the edge. "Still alive!"

"I've been wondering what a sea serpent looks like," she called back, pointing to beneath him. He looked down just in time to see the red eyes of a grimm mask before it opened it's mouth while coming up.

Gaige let out a whistle at the grimm not fully breaking water yet still climbing two hundred feet in the air before splashing back down. "Very impressive." Walking back to the medical room, she said, "Hey, Amber, going out for another bit of work. Feel like mistralian for dinner?"

"Yeah, what was that just a minute ago?"

"That? A sea monster grabbing a snack is all. So, in three days, you should be strong enough to get your other half back, ready?"

"Anything and everything I can do, I will," she told her.

"Good," Gaige replied, tossing her the scroll. "I put a few movies on it, I suggest watching Wizard of Oz. Maybe someone else will start getting my jokes then."

"The Wizard of Oz?"

"Yeah, its an old one. Fifty years at least." Not incorrect.

—oo000oo—

_Blllliiiihhh, blllliiiihhh!_ "Gaige," she said, answering the call.

"_Hey, shorty, I was just doing some scouting and I found what you wanted, old, once important castle,"_ Tina said to her. _"Used to be some big time fortress a hundred years ago about, now it is just a monster den."_

"Perfect. Clear it out Tina, not a single grimm left for miles. Do what you have to."

"_...Gaige, honey, it really just sounded like you said go all out."_

"I did, Tina. Enrique, Jean, kragon-cavalry or them both equipped with rockets and lasers, everything and anything you need. A flamethrower-guitar bard even. Just clear it and keep the castle standing." Gaige could see Tina begin to shake. "And Tina, in my office, left side of my desk, second drawer from the top, is an Abomination energy drink if that is what it will take." Tina was gone without even so much as a goodbye. And for some reason, she felt like she could hear shattering glass. Something shared by many people across Remnant.

Slapping the cover to her Blasster down, she grabbed the Bababoom and pulled it up on her shoulders, looking down from the Rooftop at a secret Mistralian White Fang base. "Deja vu. Knock, knock." _**BOOOOM!**_

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: See You Space Cowboy.


	7. Anarchy Chibi

_**Anarchy Chibi**_

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: The following short stories are cannon within the Anarchy story but don't really have a place to belong so they will be placed in Chibi chapters to be put where ever you so incline feel they belong within events.

—oo000oo—

_**Bullet for your Thoughts.**_

—oo000oo—

Gaige finished soldering a cyber chip and placed it in a machine before letting out a whistle. "Hey, guys, I need some help testing this!" Amber, Axton, and Tina came from their various activities to see a chair in front of some monitors, facing away from them.

"What cha got, kiddo," Axton asked.

"It should be a device to help with interrogations. No torture anymore, just have them sit in a the chair, put this band on their head, and they won't be able to lie to us." Gaige looked rather proud of herself.

"How's that work," Tina asked, walking around the chair.

"Sorry, Tina, to ensure good results, the tester can't know how. Which is why I need one of you to sit there and put this on." She held out what looked like a sweat band.

"I gotta try this," Axton said, taking it, sitting down, and putting it on. He could just hear the monitors turn on as he did.

"Do not look behind you," Gaige said. "First some base line questions, on these three, tell the truth. What color is the sky?"

"Blue."

"Where are you now?"

"Remnant."

"Have you ever killed someone?"

"Yes."

On the screens behind him, the left screen was blue, the center showed a map of Remnant, and the right screen showed the various gunfights he had been in.

"Good. Now, on the next three questions, lie. Have you ever stolen a toy from a friend as a child?"

"No." The left screen showed him with a toy, probably from a restaurant, walking from a friends house.

"Where were you born?"

"Eden Prime." This screen showed a town from an arid world, likely Heironymous.

"What did you..."

"What do you think of Miss Goodwitch," Tina suddenly interrupted.

"I-uh, what? Ahem. Miss Goodwitch is an impressive lady, she always seems calm, collected, despite always trying to keep nearly a thousand teenagers in line. She certainly seems capable, intelligent and...Gaige, something wrong?" Gaige had a very stony look on her face, focused entirely on the screen behind him. When Axton started to look behind him, her metal hand came up and was set on top of his head.

"Don't, we're still testing." She took a deep breath and stepped back. "Okay, let's try this again. What did..."

"You think of Mrs. Schnee," Amber asked.

"Huh?" Axton looked to her, surprised that _she_ would ask that. "I...guess, cough, she seemed...the definition of a lady."

"Attractive," Amber asked.

"Beautiful," Tina continued.

"Seductive," Amber finished.

"I...Yes, I guess she was those."

"But you would have preferred if she was a red head," Amber finished.

"...I don't know?" He tilted his head and actually pictured it before clearing his throat. "Not sure. ...You sure you're okay Gaige?"

"Axton, what do you think of me," Gaige suddenly asked, still focused on the screens.

"Gaige, you already know what I think of you. Capable, scary, intelligent, scary, powerful, scary, and..." The look on Gaige's face as Tina started laughing did not bode well for Axton. Especially when Amber began to snicker while Tina fell back while holding her head from it starting to hurt, she was laughing to hard. Ever so slowly, Axton looked behind him. The first screen showed Miss Goodwitch. Except she looked like she had replaced Aphrodite in the Birth of Venus painting. With the same amount of visibility as original too. He swallowed and looked to the next screen. Which showed Mrs. Schnee wearing a corset, thigh high boots, one of which was pressed against his chest. Not very lady like. And her hair seemed to shift between red and white.

"It shows what I see in my head," he muttered, already dreading what he would see on the last.  
"...I'm dead." It showed a corgi with a metal left from leg, wearing Gaige's cloths, and with her hair, just to finish the comparison. Looking back to Gaige, he saw the slightly murderous look on her face. "Gaige, before you lose your temper, that back there was only my first impression of you. Yes, it kinda stuck, but I know different now. There is no way I would see you as..." As he explained himself, Gaige actually looked like she was calming. Until there was barking and growls from the screen. Corgi-Gaige was now angrily barking at Axton before she bit his pants leg and started tugging on it.

"..." Gaige looked between the three screens before walking from the room. "I have something else I want to test as well," she said as door closed behind her.

"I think you should run, Sergeant," Amber said to him.

"I think so too." He got up before the door was suddenly kicked open, showing Gaige in a heavy suit of green armor, holding a short, double barrel shotgun.

"_**Mother fucking DOOM!"**_ The shotgun went off, letting out an electric guitar cord as it did.

"Definitely gotta run!" Axton was up and gone, being chased by the enraged Gaige, and on the screen Axton was also running, being chased by Corgi-Gaige.

—oo000oo—

_**Learning Moments**_

—oo000oo—

Inside a spare classroom, Gaige, Tina, and Axton were talking amongst themselves as small groups of students came in for extracurricular activities. "Hey, Gaige," Ruby shouted a bit excitedly as she ran over to them. "What super cool things are you going to teach us!?"

"Well, we didn't actually have anything set up when Ozpin asked us to do this so I thought why not just a Q and A. You got three expert hunters here, what better chance are you going to get to pick their brains?"

"That does sound promising," Blake said. "Are there any limits?"

"That's gonna be up to each of us," Axton said, having untied a boot and was adjusting it. "If it crosses a line, we'll let you know."

"What about tips on improving," Jaune asked.

"That's what all this is about, Pony Boy," Tina replied. "How to be a better White Hat to go against Black Hats."

"...Did anyone else miss that reference or was it just me," Jaune asked, looking around. "And also, Pony Boy?"

"I'll be up here," Tina told them, jumping up on the desk and skipping up the platforms. "I know explosives and how to get animals to help you in combat the best here!"

"I'm sticking right here," Axton told them, still bent over. "Military combat, how to use the terrain to your advantage, rifle combat, and just general military doctrine, all while looking like a complete badass, that's my thing."

"And I know elemental combat, machines, and physics. That being said, we all know quite a bit so just ask all of us, you'll get some good answers," Gaige said while walking to the open windows that had been set up as something of a rifle range.

—oo000oo—

Finally satisfied, Axton began tying his boots. "Frankly, I think you kids could most use some facts about life. Kinda like boots."

"...Boots," the red headed girl in bronze like armor. Nicos, if he remembered right. "How so?"

"Well, you can tell a lot about a person by their boots," he said as he straightened. "A lot of guys out there, the poorest lot, they only have one pair of boots. You ask them what boots they are going to wear, they'll reply, 'Well, Axton, I only got one pair so that is what I'm gonna wear'. The average guy, like me, we have three boots. Your worst boots, they rub after a few paces, might have a few holes, but they'll keep you're footing well enough. You wear they when you're about to go down in the muck and grime. Then you got your day to day boots, the second best pair. Look good, feels good, you don't mind being seen wearing them, kind of boot you go to dinner wearing."

"And what's your best boots," Schnee asked.

"Well, obviously that leaves your walking boots. If tomorrow morning you had to go on a forty mile hump, are you going to wear those dainty little heels or are you going to wear a good pair of shoes that is going to caress your every step. Over gravel, across sand, climbs and drops. And don't forget jumps and falls. Honestly, how have you not broken an ankle? Sure, aura helps and I'm sure you look nice. Who is going to care in the middle of a firefight or the middle of nowhere? Why handicap yourself by having to always use aura to support your feet? And furthermore, do you want to be wearing those when you step in a big, greasy pile a grimm shit?" Schnee looked down at her shoes and had no immediate response.

"...Maybe a slight change might be in order."

"...Life is good with three pairs of boots, your average guy will know when and where to wear them and can keep track of it all," Axton finished. "Then you got those upper eschalon guys that got forty pairs of boots. I can't imagine what I would do if them all and I don't think anyone that doesn't have forty can either."

"...So, this all was a metaphor," Schnee surmised. "About the weight of responsibility and duty of the aristocracy in leading..."

Axton held up a hand and interrupted her with, "N,n,n,n,na,na,noooo. This is about waste and over complication. And about _boots_. Thus the over complications. You have forty pairs of shoes in your room, don't you?" He sighed. "It would seem that the subject matter I will be teaching you will be how to keep it simple. Let's start with this."

He pulled a sidearm from his hip, a pure Dahl pistol, "This is a Dahl Repeater, model SL45. Also known as the Slas tactical. Nothing fancy, it won't transform into a bazooka-guillotine or what have you, it shoots bullets and it does it quite well. Double stack magazine holds twice what it was originally designed for. Standard and burst fire capable. Serrated slide so you can get a good grip and be less likely to get a slide bite. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Take all those bells and whistles away and it still works good. It doesn't jam in a way that isn't easily fixable, it doesn't get stuck mid-tranformation. Hot or cold, clean or dirty, it just works. Can your weapons say the same? I have gotten up to my nose in the muck before, pulled out this pistol, and started firing. Do you kids understand what I'm getting at?"

—oo000oo—

"Art is a bang," Tina said, rolling a grenade along her arms from one hand to another. "Few are the problems that cannot be solved by the proper application of High Explosives. Grimm spawning from a nest? Blow it up. Terrorist hiding in a fort they stole. Blow it up. Terrorist place a bomb in town square? Blow it up! Actually, that last one you really have to do, blowing it up early keeps it from arming unless they are using something old like nitro. I love nitro, always has this wonderful after smell. Where was I?"

"Boom goes the dynamite," Pink-Thor told her.

"Right. From what I have seen, hunters seem far too dedicated in have that full badass scene of meeting the enemy on the field of honor." She set down the grenade and held up a box with words on one side. "What do you think this is?"

"A bomb," Green Shinobi said between asking and offering.

"No! Well, yes, but no. This is death in a box, true, but look it over and memorize these words." She held it out and he took it.

"Front toward enemy."

"Where I come from, those three words are synonymous with death. Heh, I said a fancy word. No one has not heard of them. Let me tell you why. Inside that box is Composition C-Four clay explosives, resting on a steel plate and covered by roughly seven hundred ball bearings. Front, on the other hand, is just ceramic. Does anyone know what that means?"

"That is a directional, piercing weapon," Top Heavy said, having inched back from it. Hearing that, Green Shinobi set it down and no one picked it up.

"Few are the Grimm that could take a hit from that and survive. No human could, aura or not," Tina told them, picking it up. "You could stand right behind it when it goes off and be completely safe. Maybe hearing damage. You could even strap it to your chest. Not recommended but if something is about to eat you, sure. Effective kill range is two to forty meters but it will reach out and touch you to a hundred."

"...You're saying up close should be a last resort," the Red Knight asked, shifting his mace to a grenade launcher.

"I'm saying you don't have to. Hunters are often on defense, not offense, you guys can choose how and where you fight, so why not hit them from the distance so hard that when they actually get to you, they will be begging you to kill them?"

"What about those that can hit from a distance," Top heavy asked, arching a brow. "I fought a nevermore that could shoot feathers like arrows."

Tina held up one large bullet. She removed the round from the shell and then set it over a piece of paper to show powder was leaking from it. "Explosive, anti air ammunition. Can be fired from a rifle or from a turret. After about three to five seconds, it will explode. That's three seconds traveling bullet speed. Whether it is in a target or not. Why wait for the enemy to come to the explosive when you can send the explosive to them?" Then she grabbed a missile launcher. "And this baby has a tracking setting. It will follow it's target until it either reaches it or runs out of fuel. I've never seen it run out of fuel."

Red Knight rubbed his head and said, "Why should we listen to you though, you're the youngest person in this room?"

Tina just smiled as she picked her grenade back up. "Here, hold this." Slowly, he took it, and when Tina pulled her hand back, she began to spin the pin ring on her finger. His hand tightened on it so much, he probably bent the spoon safety. "That grenade can be disarmed without blowing up. Do you know how?" She held it out from him to take, and he tried to put it back in place. Except it wouldn't go in. With disturbing ease, Tina first took the pin, took his hand and shifted his grip until she held the death ball, and then just slipped the pin back into place. "That is why you should listen to me when it comes to explosives."

Green Shinobi looked to Pink-Thor and said, "Nora, don't you ever, _ever_, try to do that."

"But Ren, it looked so easy. Just let me practice some!"

"No."

—oo000oo—

"I don't got an opening speech," Gaige told her group. "Just ask away."

"How does things work between you three," Blake asked. "It seems you all have rather strong personalities."

"More or less, the leader is typically the one the job belongs to. They are here because I am here so more or less, they follow my lead."

"What's that like," Jaune asked.

"...I don't understand, I lead, and they trust me."

"I think he means how did that happen," Ruby told her.

Gaige watched them a moment before grabbing a bottle of water and taking a drink. "No one has ever been a leader because they want to be." She saw Jaune blink in confusion at that. "...Miss Belladona, how did your father become the leader of a peaceful, civil rights movement?"

"He founded it," she answered, also confused.

Gaige rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Miss Rose, how did you become leader of your team?"

Now it was Ruby's turn be confused. "...I lead, they followed?" Gaige rotated her hand for her to continue. And yet, Ruby had nothing.

"...Mister Bronzewing, do you have an answer? How did your team come to the have Mister Winchester as leader?"

"Me? Uh, well, ma'am, he stepped forward and...he seemed to know what he was doing. We..." Again, Gaige was encouraging him to continue. "...trusted him." Gauge was starting to smile. "_We_ decided to follow him."

"Correct, Mister Bronzewing. Winchester could have stepped forward but if you didn't follow then it would have meant nothing. Miss Belladona, your father wouldn't have had a movement if people didn't trust him enough to join him. Miss Rose, when you killed that Nevermore, you gave a plan of action that demanded others work with you and they did. Mister Arc, you were the least prepared for that day and yet you kept your cool, ish, while everyone else was running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They could have kept doing that but they listened to you. In fact, you are the biggest example here about not choosing to lead but others choosing you to."

"I...oh," Jaune muttered, growing quiet.

"The short of it is, Ozpin didn't choose your team's leader, your teams did. He just made it official. Does that answer how we choose who leads?"

"I think it does," he replied. "I never thought of it like that."

"Course not, you never had to think that before."

"So do you have advice for those of us not leaders," Dove asked.

"And what makes you think that wasn't also for you," Gaige replied. "If Mister Winchester gave you the order to shoot upon civilians, what would you do?"

"Wha, he would never...I think."

"Hypothetically. Would you follow that order?"

"N-No."

"Would you follow him, after that?"

"No."

"Each day people do things that either reaffirms or destroys the trust we have in them and that they have in us. Leaders are constantly having to prove themselves to ensure that trust. But it is the duty of followers to know when to _not_ follow. It it why I don't believe in the defense 'I was just following orders'. We each have a duty to do what is best. Sometimes that is clear, other times it is not. There are times you will have to trust your leader because you can't see everything. Others, you have to be able to put a foot down and say no. Judgement, Mister Bronzewing, a very needed quality for any person. Further more, there may be instances that it would be beneficial for you to lead and not Mister Winchester. How could you voice this if you aren't trusted in turn?"

Dove fell silent, not sure what to say after that. "I, uh, I have no further questions at this time..."

"Hmm. While my job keeps me moving, anytime I am here at Beacon, feel free to talk to me."

"May I ask a question," a girl said, raising her hand.

"Of course," Gaige replied. "Hmm, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't actually know your name."

"My name is Velvet Scarletina."

"Heh, Velveteen Rabbit."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, an old story my father used to read me. What was your question?"

"How do you know all this? You're barely older than us yet Professor Ozpin believes in you enough to have you teach a class."

"...I've had some hard lessons about responsibility."

"I see..."

"Was that all?"

"I...don't suppose I can take some pictures of your weapons, can I?"

Those words got Ruby's eyes shining. "Ooh, yes! Can we see your weapons? Ooh, ooh, can we _try_ your weapons!?" Gaige looked to her with a straight face before setting a little box on the floor, pressing a button on it, and moving away to do it three more times. The clicking noise drew the attention of everyone as they expanded into racks of weapons. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, snipers, SMGs, rocket launchers, a few swords, and a couple laser rifles. Ruby stood there, staring, not moving at all, just watching the implements of death and destruction.

"...Ruby," Gaige said, trying to get her attention. "You okay? ...You in there? ...Do you need a new pair of panties?" Gaige poked her and didn't get anything from her. "I think I broke..."

Ruby was gone in a rush of wind and rose petals, now holding a belt fed rifle with a rotating, gatling barrel. "Oh, my, god," she muttered, lifting the cover and looking it over. "This is an air cooled, gas operated, hand held mini gun, chambered not in five millimeter but in seven point six two. And instead of using dust ammunition, it has fire dust in the rifle to charge the bullets with it."

"I prefer using metal rounds," Gaige told her.

"How does the recoil not take your arm off?"

"How do you know it didn't," Gaige asked, motioning to her metal arm. "The M2828 Thumpson has a break action firing chamber, the fire pin assembly starts moving back but then points down to redirect the force while the weight keeps muzzle jump to a minimum." Hearing those words seemed to have made Ruby shiver. "...Seriously, are you okay? Your face is kinda flush."

"I'm fine."

"Huh..."

Ruby carefully set it back on the rack and grabbed a rifle with a rabbit on it, set next to a chrome rifle with a bayonet the size of a sword. "This is that rifle you used that night," she said a touch breathlessly.

"Yes, the Cobra, uses a unique mix of dust to make each bullet explosive, chambered in fifty five caliber. It _will_ take your arm off if you aren't careful. It was originally an anti-armor round. Ruby, you okay."

"Fine."

"Okay... That next to it is Hot Mama." Ruby looked up at the rifle. "It consumes dust to instead fire a round of pure energy. It is perfectly accurate. Ten feet to ten miles, if the crosshairs are on it, that is where it will..." Ruby's legs suddenly gave out. "Too much, huh? Here." She took Cobra from her arms and replaced it with a bullpup SMG. "This is Bone Shredder, besides shooting two bullets at once, it is just a good gun." Then she whispered, "with ammo regen."

"What?"

"What? Never mind, just give it a try, I already have sound suppressor field installed. Last window." Ruby slowly got up and walked over, pausing as the world seemed to have become muted around her. Then she aimed out the window, glanced to Gaige to get a nod, and fired for a moment. Then for three. Then she pulled the trigger and didn't let go until the magazine was empty. "Hey, Axton," Gaige called.

"What?"

"Look, Guns and Roses!" That got a laugh and groan from the man.

—oo000oo—

Author's Notes: Strangely enough, that is one joke I don't see done often in RWBY. Scratch that, I just found out that that Guns and Roses is the ship name for RubyXCrescent Rose. Which makes me ask, why? Bone Shredder is the Borderlands 1 version that I just like better. Hot Mama really does have perfect accuracy, this will come back soon. And no, it isn't dust but how do you explain a gun consuming matter to shoot energy to people that doesn't understand the tech even exist. By the way, look up Dahl Pistols and you'll see this rather neat one in google images. Its white, it might be compared to real world variants. I like it.

—oo000oo—

See you Space Cowboy.


End file.
